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A  DISCOURSE 


PRONOUNCED  AT 


THE  CAPITOL  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


IN   THE 


HALL  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


BEFORE   THE 


AMERICAN  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY, 


AT  THEIR 


SECOND  ANNUAL  MEETING, 
JANUARY  20,  1837, 

BY  THE  HON.  LEVI  WOODBURY, 

A   MEMBER   OF   THE    SOCIETY. 


WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED   BY   PETER    FORCE. 

1837. 


:£.^^ 


3 


f  Sir  :                                                              Washington,  January  21,  1837. 

L  I  am  charged  by  the  American  Historical  Society  with  the  agreeable 

,i  duty. of  presenting  their  Vote  of  Thanks,  herewith  enclosed,  for  the  eloquent, 

/  interesting,  and  truly  American  Diicourse  delivered  before  them  by  you  last 

'^  evening,  and  to  request  the  favor  of  a  copy  foi*  publication. 

c=J  I  am,  with  great  respect, 

-K  Your  most  obedient  servant, 

;^  V.  MAXCY. 

^  To  the  Hon.  Levi  Woodbury, 

j«  Washington, 


American  Historical  Society, 

January  20,  1837. 
Resolved,  That  the  Thanks  of  the  Society  be  presented  to  the  Hon.  Levi 
Woodbury  for  the  eloquent,  interesting,  and  truly  American  Discourse  deli- 
vered before  the  Society  in  the  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  this 
evening. 

Resolved,  That  Virgil  Maxcy,  Esq.,  present  to  the  Hon.  Levi  Woedbury 
the  Vote  of  Thanks  of  the  Society,  and  ask  of  him  a  copy  of  hie  Discourse 
for  publication. 

Extract  from  the  minutes  : 

H.  M.  MORFIT,  Rec.  Secretary. 


Sir  :  Washington,  January  23,  1837. 

In  reply  to  the  request  of  the  American  Historical  Society  for  a  copy 
of  my  recent  Discourse  before  them,  communicated  by  you  in  so  flattering  a 
manner,  I  place  it  at  your  disposal ;  with  much  regret,  however,  that  leisure 
has  not  been  enjoyed  to  make  it  more  wortliy  the  kindness  evinced  by  the 
Society. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully. 

Your  obedient  servant, 
J  LEVI  WOODBURY, 

j'^         Virgil  Maxcy,  Esq.,  Washington. 


u 
J 


3 


35697, 


DISCOURSE 


My  remarks  this  evening  will  be  more  particularly  addressed 
to  the  members  of  the  "American  Historical  Society,"  who 
compose  a  part  of  this  respectable  audience. 

The  objects  of  that  Society,  as  announced  in  its  Coistitutiony 
are,  "  to  discover,  procure,  and  preserve  whatever  may  relate  to 
the  natural,  civil,  literary,  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  America 
in  general,  and  of  the  United  States  in  particular/' 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  objects,  so  very  important  and 
interesting,  are  wisely  made  to  embrace  a  range  much  wider 
than  the  usual  topics  of  history. 

The  record  merely  of  battles  and  changes  in  dynasties,  or  a 
series  of  chronological  tables  of  all  remarkable  events,  and  which 
constitute  the  most  general  idea  of  the  design  of  history,  would, 
in  the  brief  as  well  as  republidan  career  of  the  United  States, 
be  literally  the  '•'  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor."  Not 
much  would  be  gained  by  adding  to  those  the  pittance,  which  in 
these  respects  is  known  of  the  rest  of  America, — a  continent 
discovered  but  little  more  than  three  out  of  nearly  the  sixty 
centuries  which  have  elapsed  since  the  creation  of  mankind, 
and  whose  population,  when  not  barbarous,  has  been  much  dis- 
persed, comparatively  few  in  numbers,  and  seldom  devoted  to 
undertakings  of  great  novelty  or  splendor.  But,  if  we  enlarge 
our  views,  as  becomes  the  elevated  position  of  this  society,  rais- 
ing and  extending  researches  from  records  of  important  occurren- 
ces to  the  true  use  or  dignity  of  history — the  causes  and  conse- 
quences of  those  occurrences,  and  to  every  thing  having  a  mate- 
rial bearing  on  man  here  in  his  social  relations,  whether  natural, 
civil,  rehgious,  or  literary,  in  their  broadest  senses,  and  we  have 
before  us  inquiries  of  a  noble  and  most  attractive  character, — 
sufficient  also  in  number  to  engross  the  leisure  which  any  or  all 


r 


of  us  are  able  to  spare  from  the  occupations  of  busy  life,  and 
ample  enough  in  their  scope  to  employ  the  severest  industry, 
or  tax  the  loftiest  powers  of  analysis  and  judgment.     It  might 
be  granted  that  naked  historical  facts  may  alone  form  one  valu- 
able branch  of  attention,  and  that  the  mere  "  honest  chronicler" 
can  be  useful  in  his  sphere.     Yet,  unlike  the  ballad-singer  and 
the  bard  who  precede  him  in  the  early  stages  of  society,  to  grat- 
ify the  natural  love  of  mankind  for  a  knowledge  of  the  past,  he 
must,  if  discarding  all  that  is  fable,  or  embellishment,  become 
very  sterile,  unpeople  much  of  the  poetic  and  legendary  lore  of 
his  predecessors,  reduce  many  marvellous  events  to  a  "plain, 
unvarnished  tale,"  and,  like  an  honest  geographer  as  to  the 
interior  of  Africa  or  New  Holland,  leave  large,  frequent,  and 
provoking  blanks.     The  only  method  of  properly  filling  up  such 
wastes  in  the  history  of  a  people  recent  in  their  origin,  and 
absorbed  chiefly  in  the  arts  and  pursuits  of  peace,  is  that  pro- 
posed in  the  constitution  of  our  society. 

Without  dwelling  on  the  minutiae  of  the  various  inquiries  thus 
contemplated,  it  certainly  will  be  admitted  to  promise  most 
usefulness,  if  we  devote  the  chief  attention  of  our  association 
to  those  topics  which,  in  its  peculiar  position,  are  most  accessible 
and  most  appropriate.  But,  while  our  labors  are  principally 
dedicated  in  this  manner,  nothing  of  an  historical  character  on 
American  affairs,  which  can  be  procured  with  ease,  need  be  en- 
tirely neglected,  however  humble  the  document,  or  remote  and 
apparently  trivial  in  bearing. 

If  its  contents  throw  new  light  on  the  progress,  powers,  or 
resources  of  any  State,  it  is  immaterial,  whether  it  be  only  a 
newspaper  or  manuscript,  or  relate  only  to  the  voyage  of  some 
hardy  fisherman  to  throw  the  hook  or  harpoon  in  unexplored 
seas,  or  to  the  description  of  even  the  smallest  insect  which 
glitters  in  the  sunbeam;  the  shell  whose  couch  is  the  "  blue  and 
boundless  sea ;"  the  ore,  that  sleeps  beneath  the  mountain's  side ; 
or  the  plant,  whose  leaf  is  sometimes  the  shroud  as  well  as  food 
for  both  man  and  the  worm.  Strange  as  it  may  seem  to  some, 
without  due  reflection,  if,  singling  out  our  first  illustration,  they 
might  find  that  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  most  diminutive  of 


the  animal  creation,  its  habits  and  history,  may  illustrate  some 
of  the  most  striking  changes  in  the  industry  and  comforts  of  a 
numerous  population.  Like  that  of  the  Hessian  fly,  for  instance, 
it  might  enable  large  sections  of  our  country  to  avert  its  ravages 
on  the  great  staff  of  life,  and  yearly  save  millions  of  property 
from  ruin ;  or,  like  that  of  the  ship  worm,  may  assist  us  to  protect 
valuable  portions  of  our  navigation  from  premature  decay ;  or, 
like  the  cochineal  and  silk-worm,  originate  new  articles  of  aid 
in  manufactures  or  of  lucrative  commerce. 

A  more  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  signs  of  valuable 
minerals  may  also  change  the  prosperity  of  whole  States,  by 
leading  to  the  discoveries  of  lead,  coal,  iron,  and  salt,  or  more 
attractive  but  less  useful  gold.  This  has  been  evinced  in  our 
own  day,  within  our  own  boundaries ;  and  the  qualities  of  a  new 
vegetable,  better  ascertained  or  more  fully  employed,  like  those 
of  tea  or  coffee,  the  cane,  the  hop,  or  cotton,  may  revolutionize 
the  pursuits  of  a  large  territory,  and  carry  wealth  and  refinement 
as  well  as  comfort  into  the  former  abodes  of  poverty  and  wretch- 
edness.    (Note  A.) 

But,  at  this  time,  passing  by  the  further  particulars  of  inquiries 
like  these,  though  your  researches  as  an  historical  society  ought 
not  entirely  to  overlook  any  of  the  various  tenants  and  products 
as  well  as  qualities  and  peculiarities  of  our  earth,  sea,  and  air, 
encouraging  the  study  of  nature,  and  cheering  forward  our  Au- 
dubons,  Nuttalls,  and  Featherstonhaughs,  to  explore  her  secret 
haunts  in  her  rudest  and  wildest  retreats ;  and  passing  by  the 
history  of  all  the  neighbouring  nations,  colonies,  and  islands 
within  the  limits  of  the  Western  hemisphere,  though  affording 
much  useful  matter  for  warning,  and  some  for  imitation,  it  seems 
more  suitable  for  us  to  give  precedence  to  those  historical  re- 
searches which  are  more  immediately  connected  with  the  pecu- 
liar position  of  our  society  at  the  capital  of  these  still  happy  and 
united  States.  Fortunately,  we  are  established  not  only  at  the 
seat  of  their  General  Government,  but  not  remote  fi-om  the 
great  marts  of  commerce;  surrounded,  at  no  inconvenient  dis- 
tances, with  extensive  libraries  and  flourishing  literary  institu- 
tions ;  near  the  centre  between  the  northern  and  southern  frontier 


8 

of  our  extended  Union,  as  well  as  at  the  real  centre  of  intercom- 
munication for  foreigners  of  distinction,  and  for  the  army,  navy, 
legislators,  judiciary,  and  travellers  of  every  grade  and  character. 
Hence,  the  opportunity  enjoyed  here  which  is  greatest,  and 
which  should  be  first  and  most  sedulously  improved,  is  to  render 
complete  the  history  of  our  own  Government,  in  all  its  general 
operations  under  our  present  constitution.    Here  are  the  records, 
and  the  most  ready  access  to  correspondence,  in  connection  with 
so  cardinal  an  object.     Much  has  been  already  done  in  several 
publications  in  this  city  to  throw  light  on  the  formation  of  the 
existing  system  as  well  as  on  the  official  proceedings  under  the 
old  confederation  which  preceded  it.     No  small  gratitude  is  due 
to  several   now  within  sound  of  my  voice,  for  their  laudable 
exertions  to  enlighten  the  present  generation,  on  the  ability  and 
untiring  patriotism  displayed  in  the  legislation,  diplomacy,  and 
wars,  not  only  of  the  Revolution  but  the  few  years  immediately 
succeeding.  (Note  B.) 

But,  if  we  duly  cherish  our  own  reputation,  and  aspire  to  meet 
the  just  expectations  of  the  rest  of  the  Union,  we  ought  to 
exhaust  every  remaining  source  of  historical  illustration  on  such 
important  points.  Further  and  without  doubt  successful  efforts 
can  be  made  to  exhibit  the  true  causes  and  consequences  of  the 
leading  measures  of  that  age  of  trial,  and  to  give  to  the  interesting 
events  which  have  followed,  under  the  General  Government,  even 
to  the  present  times,  their  true  "form  and  pressure."  On  this 
point  much  is  justly  expected  from  the  manuscripts  of  the  vene- 
rated Madison,  whose  immediate,  elevated,  and  long  agency  in 
those  political  scenes,  gave  him  opportunities  of  knowledge  pos- 
sessed by  few,  if  any  others.  Considering  the  violent  party  agita- 
tions which  have  prevailed  during  most  of  that  period ;  the  history 
of  it,  if  left  to  accident  or  prejudice ;  to  only  single-handed  effort, 
one-sided  knowledge,  and  one-eared  justice ;  to  the  mere  passions 
of  the  moment,  or  the  calumnies,  colourings,  and  distortions  of  the 
day ;  other  nations  would  be  led  to  form  very  unfavorable  views 
of  the  character  and  tendencies  of  our  Government,  and  pos- 
terity would  be  tempted  most  unjustly  to  believe,  but  for  the 
host  of  blessings  transmitted   to  them,  that   their  fathers  were 


little  better  than  the  "convicts"  they  have  so  often  been  called 
in  reproach  by  some  of  their  vrorthless  libellers. 

Let  it  then  become  a  prominent  part  of  our  duty  as  members 
of  this  society,  to  strip  from  the  statue  of  Truth  all  such  mere- 
tricious and  false  disguises.  Let  it  not  be  said  of  us,  when  in- 
quirers for  facts,  as  Aristophanes  describes  the  Athenians, 

♦'  No  matter  what  the  offence, 

«♦  Be't  great  or  small, 

"  The  cry  is  tyranny,  conspiracy." 

But,  when  we  enter  the  sacred  temple  of  History,  let  us  put 
off  the  partisan  of  the  day,  whether  in  religion  or  politics,  as 
well  as  discard  our  favorite  theories  of  philosophy  and  political 
economy,  and  seek  faithfully  to  do  justice  to  the  most  calum- 
niated. 

Let  us  strive  to  correct  mistakes  in  fact;  remove  errors  in 
opinion ;  preserve  important  discoveries  and  arts  from  perversion 
or  loss ;  illustrate  the  dark  and  doubtful  in  character,  and  preserve 
from  the  corroding  tooth  of  Time  every  thing  among  us  which 
may  be  useful  and  honorable  to  the  land  of  our  birth  and  adop- 
tion as  well  as  to  the  human  race.  In  this  last  undertaking, 
acting  in  some  degree  as  impartial  judges  on  the  bench  of  pos- 
terity, we  should  investigate  with  ermine  unsoiled,  and  with  all 
those  lofty  attributes  worthy  the  goddess  who  holds  the  equal 
scales  among  mortals. 

Hence  our  scrutiny  cannot  be  pushed  too  wide  or  too  far. 
We  must  take  neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant  accounts  of  reli- 
gious events,  neither  federal  nor  republican  views  of  political 
measures  and  motives,  without  due  allowance  for  prejudice,  and 
due  comparisons  of  probabilities  and  conflicting  testimonials. 
In  fine,  we  should  hold  the  mirror  up  to  facts  and  nature  alone, 
and  invoke  every  just  and  honorable  feeling  to  aid  us  in  judg- 
ment on  the  long  array  of  the  past. 

The  particular  topics  of  inquiry  in  this  branch  of  our  history 
are  so  numerous  that,  notwithstandmg  their  interest  to  many,  the 
fear  of  being  tedious  must  prevent  me  from  presenting  a  special 
enumeration  of  them.     (Note  C.) 

The  next  most  appropriate  object  of  research,  and  which  is 


10 

intimately  connected  with  the  other  as  a  ramification  of  it,  would 
be  the  progress  of  our  foreign  relations,  whether  on  this  or  the 
Eastern  continent.  All  the  archives  in  relation  to  them  are 
peculiarly  connected  with  the  capital  of  the  Union,  and  the  means 
afforded  here  for  the  correction  of  errors,  by  intercourse  with 
the  distinguished  representatives  of  other  Powers,  or  by  corres- 
pondence at  home  and  abroad  with  persons  able  to  communicate 
valuable  information,  are  unequalled. 

United  with  this  are  extraordinary  facilities  for  throwing  more 
light  on  our  early  history  while  dependent  on  some  of  those 
Powers,  and  of  drawing  from  their  official  records,  through  their 
courteousness  and  liberality,  much  that  may  be  useful,  not  only 
in  respect  to  our  general  concerns,  but  the  local  annals  of  vari- 
ous States  on  this  continent,  of  whatever  foreign  origin. 

To  all  these  could  be  very  appropriately  added,  at  this  central 
point,  collections  of  specimens  in  botany,  mineralogy,  and  con- 
chology,  as  well  as  in  several  other  branches  of  natural  history. 
Our  treasures  of  marl  and  of  lime,  from  shells  and  stones,  which 
may  thus  be  explored  and  flung  open  to  profitable  use  in  agri- 
culture and  the  arts,  are  probably  unrivalled. 

The  whole  range  of  Indian  history,  and  the  illustration  of  it 
by  their  relics  and  traditions,  come  likewise  most  naturally  with- 
in our  appropriate  province,  situated  at  the  centre  of  the  civil 
control  over  Indian  concerns,  and  at  the  common  point  of  resort 
and  intercommunication  for  every  important  tribe. 

What  was  the  origin  of  these  numerous  tenants  of  our  forests? 
What  were  once  their  arts  ?  What  do  their  overgrown  mounds 
and  scattered  fragments  of  ruined  cities,  their  romantic  traditions, 
and,  among  the  wildest,  some  recently  given  to  the  world  by  the 
enterprising  Catlin — what  do  these  and  the  hidden  lore  in  their 
singular  languages  and  scattered  hieroglyphics  and  paintings 
indicate  ?  What  do  their  historical  wampums — their  mysterious 
quipos  or  Peruvian  knots  develop  to  the  patient  inquirer  ? 

What  do  they  all  teach  of  their  destinies  in  by-gone  times, 
when  they  had  neither  well-balanced  government  nor  the  art  of 
printing  to  preserve  the  annals  and  grandeur  of  their  various 
careers  ? 


u 

What  disasters  drove  or  what  advantages  tempted  them  to 
erect  cities  on  heights  of  the  Andes,  above  the  tops  of  the 
loftiest  mountains  in  our  own  regions  ?  When  and  what  earth- 
quakes or  other  physical  convulsions,  by  winds  and  tides,  may 
have  separated  this  great  continent  from  Europe,  Asia,  or  Africa  ? 
What  false  or  bloody  religions  may  have  depressed  and  deluded 
them  ?  What  inscrutable  doom  has  hung  and  still  hangs  over  their 
decay  and  dispersion  ? 

Such  inquiries  as  these,  if  less  useful  to  provide  historical 
materials  to  advance  the  prosperity  of  this  and  future  ages,  are 
yet  objects  of  liberal  curiosity,  and  debts  of  gratitude  and  jus- 
tice, if  not  of  atonement,  in  some  cases,  due  to  the  races  which 
preceded  us  in  these  fair  and  fertile  regions.  Amid  the  atrocities 
almost  inseparable  from  the  condition  of  savage  life,  those  races 
frequently  displayed  great  hospitality  and  heroic  devotion  to  our 
fathers.  Their  history,  thus  far,  has  been  too  often  written  only 
by  enemies ;  and  when,  as  sometimes  is  the  fact,  the  authors 
were  smarting  under  their  barbarities,  frankness  requires  us  to 
admit  that  they  have  occasionally  proved  unjust  if  not  vindictive. 

If  King  Philip,  the  great  Sachem  of  Pokanoket,  could  have 
stood  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Hope  and  stretched  his  eyes  over 
the  rich  rivers  and  beautiful  bays  of  his  Narraganset  dominions, 
and  not  have  sighed  at  abandoning  them,  nor  amid  stifled  regrets 
and  pangs  at  parting,  have  fought  to  defend  them,  he  would 
have  been  unworthy  his  station,  and  have  justly  deserved  the 
execrations  of  history. 

We,  ourselves,  may  yet  learn  useful  admonitions  from  the 
annals  of  even  such  savage  examples,  if  well  considered ;  and 
be  proud  while  lamenting,  as  we  ought,  their  ignorance,  supersti- 
tions, and  cruelty,  if  we,  when  menaced  by  invasion  from  abroad, 
or  by  intestine  divisions  at  home,  may  be  able  to  imitate  the  ex- 
hortations and  sacrifices  to  union,  the  bravery  and  prudence,  if 
not,  in  some  respects,  lofty  patriotism  of  such  men  as  Philip  and 
Tecumseh ! 

But  my  main  purpose  on  the  present  occasion  is  to  advert 
more  folly  to  some  of  the  deductions  and  influences  to  be  de- 
rived from  historical  researches  like  those  previously  alluded  to, 


12 

and  pursued,  with  the  spirit  enjoined,  into  the  true  character  of 
American  affairs  in  general,  and  especially  of  our  own  Govern- 
ment and  people.  The  lessons  of  wisdom  which  our  annals, 
when  rightly  read,  are  thus  inculcating,  constitute  t'heir  rtiost 
conspicuous  excellence. 

It  is  thus  that  history  becomes  the  useful  schoolmaster  of 
every  age.  Its  pupils  are  the  living — its  lessons  the  monuments 
of  the  dead,  in  the  record  of  their  principles  and  their  deeds. 
Their  virtues  are  held  up  for  adoption  ;  their  vices  for  abhorrence ; 
their  errors  for  correction  and  warning ;  their  glory  in  arts  or 
arms,  in  literature,  in  the  sciences,  or  government,  for  admiration 
and  useful  emulation. 

What  then  has  been  the  peculiar  influence  of  the  events 
which  have  transpired  here  since  Columbus  daringly  turned  the 
prow  of  his  vessel  into  an  unknown  ocean,  and  first  beheld  the 
shores  of  a  new  world  darkening  the  horizon  ?  Or  even  since 
the  pilgrim  fathers  stepped  on  the  rocky  beach  of  the  East  ?  Or 
the  chivalrous  Smith  landed  at  Jamestown,  surrounded  by  a  new 
and  admiring  race  ? 

What  has  been  the  result  on  America  itself?  What  on  Eu- 
rope ?    What  on  the  world  at  large  ? 

In  tracing  these  inquiries  into  minute  details,  it  is  useful  to 
seek  all  which  has  been  disclosed  that  is  important  as  to  com- 
merce and  the  arts,  or  letters  and  arms,  and  the  various  and 
splendid  works  of  nature,  as  well  as  human  rights  and  govern- 
ment, and  the  last  and  best  hopes  of  man  in  religion  and  the 
future  improvement  of  our  race.  In  brief,  we  may  ask.  What 
does  history  teach  us  has  been  the  true  philosophy  of  the  whole  ? 

By  the  discovery  of  a  continent,  before  unknown,  there  burst 
upon  the  numerous  races  inhabiting  its  forests,  the  knowledge, 
so  marvellous  to  their  untutored  minds,  of  the  existence  of  the 
Eastern  hemisphere,  and  of  a  people  whose  civilization  made 
them  appear  at  first  to  be  demi-gods.  This  was  soon  followed 
by  some  faint  conception  of  the  useful  character  of  the  reviving 
letters,  as  well  as  of  a  religion,  calculated,  one  would  have 
supposed,  if  properly  diffused,  not  to  lead  to  the  extirpation, 
conquest,  or  degradation  of  the  aborigines,  but  rather  to  their 


13 

elevation  to  all   which  might  rival  the  loftiest  and  best  in  the 
old  world. 

It  might  at  that  crisis  have  been  fairly  hoped  that  the  change 
on  the  Indians  themselves  would  have  been  more  salutary  and 
glorious  than  even  on  the  Europeans.  But,  notwithstanding  the 
brilliant  visions  which  illuminated  their  horizon,  history  has  blast- 
ed almost  every  fond  anticipation  indulged,  and  has  presented  the 
destinies  of  the  former  inhabitants  of  the  new  continent  under 
almost  one  indiscriminate  and  total  eclipse.  It  is  true  that  Eliot 
and  "the  good  Las  Casas"  early  preached  the  cross  of  Christ 
among  them.  A  Brainard  and  others  have  since  perished  in  the 
cause  of  Indian  reform,  burning  with  enthusiasm  to  cast  down 
their  false  gods.  Schools  have  been  sometimes  established  among 
them  ;  agriculture  and  the  arts  often  encouraged.  But  a  deso- 
lating blight  seems  to  have  spread  over  the  whole  native  race, 
crushing  the  expectations  of  the  philanthropist,  saddening  the 
heart  of  the  Christian,  and  almost  extinguishing  further  hopes  of 
great  benefits  from  those  exertions  which  a  sense  of  duty  and  the 
calls  of  humanity  still  prompt  us  to  persevere  in  making. 

Mortifying  as  this  has  been  to  the  pride  of  more  enlightened 
human  reason,  and  a  purer  rehgion,  engaged  in  the  civilization  of 
the  savages,  it  is  almost  equally  mortifying  that  few  can  agree 
about  the  principal  causes  of  these  repeated  failures.  Probably 
they  have  been  many  and  various,  (note  D,)  but  the  discussion 
of  them  would  occupy  much  space ;  and,  amid  all  the  errors  and 
wrongs  as  well  as  commendable  efforts  of  two  or  three  centuries 
on  this  lamentable  subject,  the  only  useful  deduction  from  then: 
history  which  time  will  now  permit  me  to  notice,  is,  that  before 
any  thing  permanently  beneficial  can  be  effected  for  them,  above 
all,  and  beyond  all,  must  they  be  induced  to  co-operate  together, 
and,  burying  former  animosities  and  revenges,  to  unite  heartily 
as  one  people,  in  all  the  great  general  relations  of  society. 

This  alone  will  afford  leisure,  taste,  and  resources  for  real  civi- 
lization. They  have  long  been  a  living  monument,  we  will  not 
say  of  the  judgments  oi  Heaven,  but  certainly  of  the  folly  conse- 
quent on  divisions  among  the  same  race  into  paltry  tribes,  and 
like  most  of  the  clans  of  olden  time,  wasting  their  mutual  means 


14 

and  energies  in  mutual  aggression,  instead  of  finding  leisure  or 
cherishing  propensities  for  the  pursuits  of  peace  and  national 
improvement. 

Perhaps,  in  the  wisdom  of  Providence,  they  have  in  this 
respect  been  designed  as  beacons  to  warn  us  from  the  paths  of 
division  and  ruin  ;  and  the  best  philosophy  of  their  history  to  us, 
and  the  most  useful  lesson  to  be  extracted  from  it  for  them,  is 
probably  the  importance,  not  only  of  suitable  education  in  arts 
as  well  as  in  letters,  but  of  union  in  governments,  and  union  in 
efforts  for  cbmmon  prosperity,  rather  than  a  bhnd  indulgence  in 
jealousies  of  each  other,  and  a  preseverance  equally  relentless 
and  fatal  in  border  hostilities  ? 

But,  leaving  the  influence  of  Europe  upon  the  original  inhabi- 
tants of  America,  their  past  fortunes,  as  well  as  future  prospects, 
what  weal  or  wo  does  history  prove  that  the  discovery  of  this 
country  has  in  return  been  the  means  of  conferring  on  the  rest 
of  mankind. 

It  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  calculate  with  accuracy 
either  the  stimulus  or  expansion  given  to  the  human  mind 
wherever  civilization  prevailed,  by  only  the  announcement  of 
the  ascertained  existence  of  a  new  world.  Imagination  had  be- 
fore painted  some  islands  in  the  blue  West,  like  the  Atlantides  of 
Plato !  Tradition,  in  the  North,  if  not  history,  had  also  spoken 
of  Greenland,  and  such  emigrations  as  that  of  Madock  from 
Wales,  to  regions  remote  and  unknown. 

Notwithstanding  the  denunciations  of  the  Vatican,  astronomy 
too  had  dared  to  speculate  on  the  formation  and  character  of  the 
earth  as  a  planet,  so  as  to  fill  such  souls  as  Columbus  with 
enthusiasm  for  the  search  of  new  continents,  or  new  routes  to 
older  and  distant  kingdoms.  But  now  fancy,  fable,  hypothesis, 
tradition,  were  all  to  be  lost  in  a  glorious  and  astounding  reality  ! 
A  new  world,  vast  in  extent,  abundant  in  population,  and  gor- 
geous with  fertility  and  gold,  was  laid  open  to  the  admiring  eyes 
of  the  Eastern  hemisphere  !  What  rich  themes  for  the  historian  ! 
What  a  range  for  the  geographer,  naturalist,  and  adventurer ! 
What  visions  for  the  poet !  What  fresh  incentives  and  materials 
for  commerce  !    What  a  theatre  for  the  philanthropist !    • 


15 

In  the  more  rapid  revival  of  literature  and  wonderful  extension 
of  foreign  trade,  but  still  more  in  the  progress  of  wealth  and 
intelligence  among  the  lower  classes,  as  well  as  of  political  rights, 
and  a  reformed  religion  over  considerable  portions  of  Europe, 
since  that  magnificent  discovery,  no  doubt  exists  that  much  is 
justly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  influences  derived  from  that  remarka- 
ble event.  Especially  must  it  be  so  if  coupled  with  the  subse- 
quent exploration  and  settlement  of  America,  thus  including  her 
bright  example  since,  as  well  as  her  strong  impulses  at  first. 

Beside  the  general  expansion,  influences,  and  impulses  thus 
imparted  almost  every  where  and  to  every  subject  or  pursuit, 
many  important  articles  of  commerce  were  flung  open  to  the 
Eastern  world,  and  some  useful  seeds,  plants,  and  animals  were 
transferred  to  improve  and  enrich  the  great  discoverers. 

A  single  American  vegetable,  the  humble  potato,  has  alone 
more  than  repaid  Europe,  in  real  wealth  and  comfort,  for  all  the 
expenses  of  the  discovery,  and  seems  destined  to  prove  a  greater 
blessing  to  mankind  than  the  whole  of  the  precious  ores,  which 
attracted  so  strongly  the  first  voyagers,  or  which  have  since 
been  drawn  from  the  prolific  mines  of  the  South. 

But,  such  topics  sink  in  importance  before  those  improvements 
in  the  civil  and  political  condition  of  mankind  which  have  be- 
come the  great  characteiistic  as  well  as  glory  of  this  Western 
hemisphere.  Certain  it  is,  that,  from  the  first  visit  to  its  shores, 
or,  at  all  events,  from  the  earliest  durable  occupation  of  the  ter- 
ritory which  now  composes  these  United  States,  America  was 
regarded  by  many  as  peculiar  in  its  destinies,  in  connexion  with 
the  governments  east  of  the  Atlantic,  and  as  fitted,  from  its  dis- 
tance, attractions,  and  resources,  if  not  in  time  to  react  upon 
and  regenerate  Europe  itself,  at  least  to  drain  it  of  some  of  its 
most  useful  population,  and  become  the  asylum  of  the  perse- 
cuted and  oppressed  of  all  nations. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  comparative  physical  powers  of 
its  native  inhabitants,  and  whether  its  vast  territory,  mountains, 
rivers,  and  lakes— its  condors  and  mammoths — were  diminutive, 
and  hence,  as  BufFon  and  some  others  supposed,  the  European 
man  was  likely  to  degenerate  here,  it  is  hardly  necessary  at  this 


16 

day  to  discuss.  Notwithstanding  any  such  impressions  then,  this 
country  soon  became,  not  only  a  refuge  for  the  distressed,  whe- 
ther driven  into  exile  by  the  ordinary  calamities  of  social  life,  or 
by  fanaticism,  bigotry,  and  intolerance  in  religion,  or  by  the  vin- 
dictive bitterness  of  political  hostility,  but  the  chosen  abode  of 
myriads  of  the  best  and  bravest  spirits  of  that  chivalrous  age. 
In  taunts,  by  our  defamers,  we  have  since  been  often  vilified  as 
a  **  colony  of  outcasts,"  whose  "  Adam  and  Eve  emigrated  firom 
Newgate."  But,  yielding  that  a  very  few,  as  in  all  new  countries 
may  sometimes  have  "  strayed  in  error's  path,"  yet^  the  great 
mass  emigrating  hither  are  well  known  to  have  been  the  enlight- 
ened and  patriotic — such  men  as  "  know  their  rights,  and  knowing 
dare  maintain  ;"  having  equal  readiness  and  fitness  in  both  body 
and  mind  to  encounter  the  perils  of  inclement  seas,  fi:ozen 
shores,  and  ferocious  savages,  rather  than  submit  longer  to  the 
endurance  of  the  bitter  oppressions  inflicted  on  them  in  Europe 
by  the  parasites  of  power  and  the  tyrants  who  upheld  them. 

In  brief,  as  history  has  amply  shown  by  their  wonderful  suc- 
cess, they  were  men  suited  not  only  at  first  to  subdue  a  wilder- 
ness and  cope  triumphantly  with  barbarians,  but  afterwards  to 
wage  a  victorious  struggle  with  bigotry,  persecution,  and  usurpa- 
tion, from  their  former  homes.  It  is  true,  and  their  descendants 
have  never  otherwise  pretended,  that  not  many  of  them  were 
devotees  of  the  fine  arts,  or  the  fashionable,  or  the  titled,  fix)m  the 
purlieus  of  St.  James's  or  Versailles.  Without  derogating  from 
the  proper  merits  of  any  of  these  classes  in  their  proper  spheres, 
or  under  other  political  systems,  our  ancestors  are  conceded  to 
have  been  mostly  homines  res  agenda, — ^men  truly  fitted  and 
thoroughly  devoted  to  the  practical  affairs  of  life.  But  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  they  were,  at  the  same  time,  men  intelli- 
gent and  intrepid  in  matters  of  government  and  religion,  as  well 
as  in  ordinary  business ;  and  being  so,  that  they  were  such  men 
as  ought  to,  and  will,  by  their  unconquerable  constancy  and  skill, 
not  only  advance  their  fortunes  and  foil  opposition,  but  virtually 
govern  the  world,  whenever  the  world  is  enlightened,  moral, 
and  fi:ee. 

They  will  do  this,  not  because  ambitious  and  designing,  but 


17 

because  best  qualified  to  defend  the  hearth  and  the  altar  when  in 
jeopardy,  and,  by  useful  arts  and  honest  industry  as  well  as  by 
arras,  to  build  great  and  prosperous  communities.  Like  The- 
mistocles,  they  and  many  of  their  descendants  could  proudly  say, 
**  I  am  unable  to  play  on  the  flute,  but  I  know  how  to  make  a 
large  state  from  a  small  one."  Humble  as  some  of  their  general 
traits  of  character  may  appear  to  many,  the  history  of  passing 
events,  as  well  as  of  the  past,  shows  that  their  labors  have  not 
been  lost  on  Europe  any  more  than  on  America,  and  that,  by 
means  of  them  the  latter  has  gradually  become  not  only  the 
land  of  plenty,  but  of  promise,  to  large  portions  of  the  other 
empires  of  the  earth. 

From  Cromwell  and  Hampden,  who  attempted  in  vain  to 
emigrate  hither ;  and  firom  Locke  and  Berkeley,  who  generously 
labored  to  improve  our  institutions,  as  well  as  from  the  numbers^ 
whether  Independents,  Huguenots,  or  Catholics,  who,  undaunted, 
actually  encountered  every  physical  suffering  to  escape  from 
what  were  considered  worse  evils  at  home  of  a  religious  and 
political  character — from  their  whole  heroic  efforts,  sacrifices,  and 
triumphs,  a  sphrit  or  a  change  in  society  has  moved  over  the  face 
of  this  great  continent,  and  at  last  recrossed  the  Atlantic. 

It  is  now  pervading  the  best  parts  of  the  old  world,  and  though, 
since  the  discovery  of  America,  it  has  been  much  assisted  by 
lessons  derived  from  antiquity,  and  much  by  the  arts,  and  princi- 
ples, of  several  modem  nations  in  Western  Europe,  calculated  to 
renovate  and  improve,  yet  this  great  change  has  been  more 
emphatically  and  immediately  the  result  of  exertions,  experi- 
ments, and  example  here. 

This  spirit  or  change  relates  chiefly  to  the  wider  diffusion  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty. 

The  peculiar  teachings  of  our  history  consist  chiefly  in  point- 
ing out  the  causes  and  preservatives  of  this  spirit,  its  peculiari- 
ties, its  proper  limitations  and  guards,  its  consequences  in  benefits 
and  glories,  its  perils,  securities,  and  hopes  ! 

A  few  words  as  to  some  of  its  causes.     When  we  look  back 
to  the  great  experiment  which  has  been  moving  onward  here  for 
two  centuries,  it  is  at  once  discovered  that  httle  of  our  success 
3 


18 

has  depended  on  physical  advantages.  The  Southern  portions 
of  this  continent  have  exhibited  as  mighty  rivers,  as  fertile  plains, 
and  lofty  mountains,  and  genial  climates,  as  in  the  North  and 
West ;  and,  without  wishing  to  draw  comparisons  either  invidious 
or  derogatory,  we  are  forced  to  trace  the  differences  of  progress 
in  arts,  power,  and  government,  to  much  higher  sources. 

In  truth,  the  causes  of  the  great  changes  now  under  consider- 
ation have  been  imbedded  much  deeper  in  mind  than  in  matter, 
and  been  accompanied  by  some  of  the  most  remarkable  moral 
phenomena  since  the  creation. 

The  condition  of  many  of  the  first  settlers  here  led  them  at 
once  to  commence,  if  it  did  not  impose  on  them  the  necessity  of 
a  thorough  course  of  training  for  self-government.  Hence,  most 
of  their  rulers  were,  from  the  first,  voluntarily  chosen,  and  it  was 
not  till  some  stability  in  business  and  progress  in  wealth  were 
attained,  chiefly  by  their  own  exertions,  that  many  of  the  colonial 
establishments  were  deemed  of  sufficient  importance  to  tempt 
from  abroad  the  interference  of  much  regulation,  domination,  and 
persecution,  in  the  shape  of  government.  But  the  neglected 
condition  of  the  first  establishments ;  the  daring  character  of  the 
early  emigrants;  their  habits  of  self-possession  and  self-legis- 
lation for  most  exigencies ;  the  entire  freedom  of  thought, 
feeling  and  opinions  they  gradually  cherished,  and  the  feebleness 
of  delegated  power  when  imposed  from  so  great  a  distance  as 
Europe,  kept  up  a  constant  education  for  independence,  which 
must,  without  any  temerity,  or  a  tax  on  tea,  or  the  odium  of 
stamp  duties,  have  been  consummated  on  some  other  early 
occasion,  whenever  sufficient  strength  and  numbers  were  ob- 
tained, and  any  slightf provocation  occurred  to  cause  an  explo- 
sion. "  Coming  events"  had  for  some  time  "  cast  their  shadow 
before."  Their  institutions  and  habits  had  made  men  bold,  but 
not  bad  ;  hardy,  intelligent,  equal,  plain-dealing,  and  just,  though 
enterprising  and  shrewd  ;  had  promoted  the  employment  of  the 
faculties  in  useful  action  rather  than  the  embellishment  of  them, 
and  had  reared  gallant  soldiers,  intelligent  farmers,  industrious 
and  scientific  mechanics,  and  practical  lawyers  for  leaders,  rather 
than  mere  scholars,  or  only  the  sometimes  weak  inheritors  of 
office. 


19 

Such  leaders,  too,  were  not  simply  the  Brutuses  or  Catos  of 
antiquity,  but  they  were  the  compatriots  of  multitudes  imbued 
like  themselves  with  greater  useful  knowledge,  with  a  higher 
code  of  morals  and  purer  religion,  and  with  faculties  sharpened 
and  strengthened  by  the  experience  in  government  and  improve- 
ment in  arts  of  two  thousand  more  years. 

The  institutions  established,  as  well  as  the  principles  cherished, 
all,  therefore,  tended  to  a  new,  radical,  and  great  result.  Unlike 
most  other  people  in  their  origin,  they  experienced  here  no  long 
infancy  of  ignorance,  or  barbarism,  but  at  once  started  into  being, 
elevated  by  and  enjoying  the  aid  of  all  the  useful  improvements 
as  well  as  learning  and  morals  of  the  most  civilized  nations  of  the 
known  world. 

It  is  manifest,  likewise,  that  they  brought  with  them,  early  as 
on  board  the  May  Flower,  or  late  as  the  arrival  of  Penn,  the 
elements  of  future  resistance  to  every  species  of  tyranny  over 
the  human  mind.  Though  some  of  their  views  were  yet  crude, 
and,  as  might  be  expected,  all  the  rights  of  man  were  not  so 
well  understood  as  after  the  struggles  and  popular  victories  of 
two  more  centuries ;  still,  the  stern  resolve  to  be  no  longer  "  a 
mere  shadow  of  what  others  say  anddo,"  in  either  politics,  reli- 
gion, or  manners,  had  distinctly  appeared  in  the  very  causes  of 
the  emigration  of  most  of  them.  The  increasing  wealth,  as  well 
as  education  and  rights  of  the  lower  classes  in  portions  of  Europe, 
had  previously,  though  gradually,  been  developing  there  for  one 
or  two  centuries,  under  every  species  of  thraldom  from  official 
opposition  in  most  of  her  monarchical  government?.  A  settle- 
ment in  America  presented  not  only  an  asylum  to  those  classes 
when  wronged,  whether  persecuted  for  opinion  or  cloven  down 
in  some  contest  for  freedom  at  home,  but  a  theatre  on  which 
their  theoretic  views  of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  equal  rights, 
removed  so  far  from  the  strong  arm  of  despotic  power,  would 
sooner  be  allowed  a  fair  trial,  without  incurring  the  danger  of 
martyrdom,  or  of  perishing  on  the  scaffold  with  such  men  as 
Sidney,  Russel,  and  Vane.  It  was  more  distant,  also,  from  the 
blandishments,  the  wiles,  and  the  seductive  appliances  of  a  court, 
and  was  soon  surrounded  and  sustained  chiefly  by  spirits  of  a 


o 


0 


kindred  training  with  their  own.  But,  without  dwelling  longer 
on  such  details,  the  general  features  of  our  whole  history  previous 
to  the  Revolution,  evince  that  America,  besides  being  a  retreat 
for  the  persecuted,  was  regarded  at  first  and  to  the  last  as  a 
favored  abode  of  the  hardy  and  industrious,  and  the  peculiar 
resort,  not  of  dignitaries  in  church  or  state,  or  drones  of  any 
kind,  but  of  those  devoted  to  new  enterprises  and  lucrative 
commerce,  and  who  would  dare  to  settle  on  a  cold,  inhospitable, 
and  iron-bound  coast,  as  readily  as  on  the  sunny  and  fertile 
banks  of  the  Delaware,  the  Savannah,  or  the  Mississippi,  if 
they  could  but  plant  quiet  and  free  homes  among  the  snow  and 
granite,  and  fish  up  a  profitable  livelihood  from  the  depths  of  the 
ocean — trap  the  beaver  among  his  mountains  and  lakes,  or  hunt 
the  whale  with  success  at  either  the  equator  or  the  poles.  In 
fine,  whether  at  the  North,  the  Centre,  or  the  South,  it  was  con- 
sidered the  home,  as  it  is  now  the  glory  chiefly  of  the  middling 
and  laborious  classes.  These  classes,  accustomed  to  rely  on 
their  own  energies  in  private  life,  and  smarting  under  taxation, 
intolerance,  and  monopolies,  in  their  former  abodes,  aspired  to 
breathe  the  freer  air  of  some  other  region,  where,  though  remote, 
unfi:iended,  and  solitary — though  strangers  at  first,  and  environed 
by  almost  every  species  of  peril,  they  might  be  governed  in 
public  life  also,  by  their  own  judgments,  as  well  as  by  their  own 
interests  and  useful  laws.  Most  of  the  emigrants,  and  their 
descendants,  were  likewise  persons  very  equal  in  rank,  business, 
property,  and  education,  and  such  mainly  as  felt  the  strongest 
attachment  to  the  great  republican  doctrines  of  liberty,  as  taught 
by  the  school  of  Harrington  and  Hampden.  Above  all,  they 
were  men  deeply  impressed  with  religious  principle  as  a  guide, 
a»d  their  constant  efforts  were  to  acquire  for  themselves,  and 
transmit,  unimpaired,  to  others,  a  full  knowledge  of  their  duties, 
no  less  than  a  full  enjoyment  of  their  rights  and  powers,  as 
being  free,  enlightened,  accountable,  and  immortal. '  In  these 
last  circumstances  are  concentrated  two  cardinal  and  conservative 
principles  of  then*  whole  system.  They  are  the  principles  which, 
fundamental  in  their  nature,  chiefly  sustained  them  before,  as  well 
as  during,  the  crisis  of  the  great  struggle  for  independence,  and 


21 

which  have  since  contributed  most  essentially  to  push  forward 
our  country  with  such  rapidity  to  its  present  unexampled  condi- 
tion of  prosperity.  Those  principles  were  the  promotion  and 
indispensable  necessity,  under  their  free  institutions,  of  a  high 
degree  of  practical  education  and  sound  morals.  Without  these, 
whatever  other  numerous  advantages  our  ancestors  possessed 
in  their  Saxon  origin — their  general  equality — soils  so  exu- 
berant—fisheries so  polific,  and  navigable  waters  so  extensive, 
they  either  would  have  been  incapable  of  self-government,  from 
ignorance  of  the  true  extent  of  their  rights  and  the  proper  safe- 
guards for  them  by  means  of  suitable  Constitutions  and  laws  ;  or 
they  would  have  become  so  impracticable,  divided,  and  weak,  as 
to  have  passed  under  a  foreign  yoke.  Or  they  would  have 
proved  so  unprincipled  and  craven  as  to  have  bartered  the  sub- 
stance for  the  shadow,  and  accepted,  at  the  Revolution,  if  not 
chains,  yet  an  unequal  compromise  with  the  parent  country,  for 
the  aggrandizement  of  a  few,  which  would  have  forever  branded 
them  with  dishonor.  Or  since,  as  well  as  previously,  they  would, 
without  just  pretence,  have  made  claims  and  resorted  to  ferocious 
outrages  on  individuals  or  feebler  nations,  from  whatever  cause 
obnoxious,  which  would  have  destroyed  the  confidence  of  the 
world  in  their  integrity,  and,  if  not  leading  to  counter  revolutions 
or  restorations,  would  probably  have  wrecked  many  of  their 
most  valuable  institutions.  But,  elevated  and  ameliorated  by 
those  principles,  they  were  always  men  as  different  from  Romulus 
and  Remus,  and  their  wolfish  aggressions  on  the  neighboring 
people,  and  from  the  Barbarossas  of  more  modern  eras,  as  were 
the  Christian  from  the  Pagan  codes  of  morals,  or  the  nature  of 
the  education  of  the  Puritans  from  that  of  banditti  and  buc- 
caneers. 

Nor  ever  since  (we  may  justly  exult)  has  the  spirit  of  plunder 
or  conquest  been  allowed  to  stain  a  single  page  of  our  annals. 
On  the  contrary,  we  see  every  where,  and  in  every  thing,  the 
astonishing  results  of  that  practical  education,  and  those  sound 
morals,  operating  on  a  people  so  fortunately  situated.  From  the 
very  outset  it  taught  them  the  importance  not  only  of  free 
schools,  libraries,  and  colleges,  as  means  or  instruments  for  ad- 


22 

vancement — but  what  precedes  even  them  in  time  and  utility — 
strict  parental  discipline  at  the  fire-side,  thorough  acquisition  of 
trades  and  professions,  and  the  beneficial  instructions  of  the 
pulpit  and  the  forum.  • 

It  taught  them  also  to  make  actual  experiments  as  well  as  im- 
provements on  what  had  already  been  learned,  or,  in  some  sense, 
to  combine  study  and  practice,  by  mingling  in  the  administration 
of  justice  as  jurors  ;  exercising  fearlessly  the  right  of  voting  at  the 
polls ;  and  all,  or  nearly  all,  taking  a  constant  and  legal,  as  well 
as  large  part  in  the  management  of  those  miniature  republics, 
consisting  of  districts  and  towns,  as  well  as  in  the  disposal  of 
county  and  state  affairs. 

Their  system  of  free-schools  was  generally  one  of  the  strong- 
est foundation-stones  of  the  whole  fabric ;  and  we  can  trace  in 
their  legislative  records,  the  establishment  of  them  as  early  as  the 
first  twenty-five  years  of  their  settlement.  Most  persons,  though 
childless,  wisely  considered  their  property  and  persons  so  fully 
protected  and  benefited  by  the  education  of  the  children  of 
others,  as  to  make  the  tax  for  this  purpose  just  and  salutary. 
This  system,  in  various  ways,  is  believed  to  have  since  extended 
its  ramifications  or  influences  over  most  of  the  Union ;  and 
though  in  some  States  yet  unattempted  in  form,  and  in  many  yet 
deficient  in  attention  to  inculcate  the  elements  of  great  moral  and 
political  truths  as  fully  as  a  knowledge  of  mere  letters,  it  has, 
with  admirable  retributive  justice,  called  to  its  aid,  in  other 
States,  all  the  taxes  and  penalties  inflicted  on  the  minor  vices  of 
society.     (Note  E.) 

But,  besides  these  and  much  more  of  details  connected  with 
the  origin  and  progress  of  elementary  education  here,  and  which 
however  interesting,  want  of  time  compels  me  to  omit,  our  his- 
tory exhibits  a  favorable  change  of  late  years  on  the  subject  of 
books  of  useful  knowledge,  in  their  greater  cheapness  and  multi- 
plicity, as  well  as  increased  practical  tendency. 

The  libraries  of  this  country,  whether  public  or  private,  are 
also  becoming  larger  and  more  valuable,  and  the  progress  of 
invention  by  stereotype  printing,  by  improvements  in  the  manu- 
facture of  paper,  and  by  steam  presses,  has  contributed  much  to 


23 

facilitate  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  for  both  the  ordinary  and 
more  select  purposes  of  life.  The  daily  press  has  thus  become 
another  most  powerful  auxiliary  in  teaching ;  and  the  number  of 
newspapers  in  America  is  computed  to  have  increased  so  as  to 
be  more  than  half  as  great  as  that  which  the  wealth,  popula- 
tion, and  intelligence  of  the  whole  of  Europe  now  circulate. 
While  on  some  subjects  all  mankind  feel  and  act  much  alike,  our 
ancestors  were  wisely  aware  that  a  conventional  mode  of  think- 
ing on  others  is  often  formed  very  early,  and  in  great  strength, 
by  books  and  associates. 

Hence  arose  in  part  their  great  sagacity,  foresight,  and  dili- 
gence in  respect  to  early  education  ;  and  thus,  while  in  the  view 
of  the  unlettered  Indian,  we,  as  they  did,  by  our  system  of  edu- 
cation, spoil  his  children  for  the  chase  and  the  inclination  for 
interminable  and  ferocious  war,  we  shall,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  always 
continue  by  means  of  it  to  spoil  our  own  children  for  most  of 
the  purposes  of  either  sloth,  slavery,  or  despotism ;  and  while, 
by  proper  elementary  works,  by  competent  teachers,  and  liberal 
pecuniary  encouragement,  we  shall  be  able  to  point  in  every 
village  school  to  such  spoiled  children  as  our  Franklins  and  Han- 
cocks once  were,  a  constant  progress  will  be  secured,  as  well  in 
the  useful  arts  of  life  as  in  the  preservation  and  improvement  of 
our  liberties. 

In  another  branch  of  common  instruction  this  country  has 
advanced  so  far  beyond  most  others,  as  to  become  a  model  for 
foreigners  to  examine  and  imitate.  Thus,  under  the  influence  of 
just  sentiments  of  humanity  for  even  the  lowest  of  our  erring 
race,  some  of  the  States,  and  many  private  associations,  have 
pushed  education,  literary  and  religious,  not  only  into  the  alms- 
house, but  the  very  cell  of  the  criminal — and  while  enuring  the 
body  to  habits  of  useful  industry  and  accustoming  the  appetites 
to  temperance,  it  has  been  attempted  to  superadd  hopes  of 
durable  reformation,  by  increasing  the  knowledge  of  the  rights 
of  others,  and  strengthening  the  sense  of  duty  to  respect  these 
rights.  The  means  of  higher  education  have  likewise  long 
existed  here,  and  of  late  been  much  enlarged,  though,  for 
reasons  hereafter  detailed,  they  have  usually  been  deemed  of 


24 

secondary  importance.  Our  practical  intelligence  always  taught 
us  to  rely  on  the  skilful  surgeon  rather  than  the  mechanic,  for 
amputating  a  broken  limb ;  and  though  the  mere  literary  classes 
have  rather  been  regarded  as  the  capital  or  ornament  of  the 
column  than  the  column  itself,  which  supports  the  social  edifice, 
their  labors  have  done  much  to  solace,  refine,  and  stimulate 
others,  and  often,  as  in  the  case  of  Davy  and  Napier,  Black  and 
Newton,  have  helped  essentially  to  advance  even  the  common 
arts  and  improvements  of  mankind. 

Sound  learning  and  true  liberty  have  thus  justly  been  descri- 
bed as  leaning  on  each  other  for  support ;  and  if  any  tendency 
has  ever  been  indulged  here  in  public  feeling  towards  any  kind 
of  monarchy,  it  has  been  as  much  the  real,  though  unacknow- 
ledged monarchy  of  the  learned  professions  and  men  of  letters,  as 
of  the  middling  classes.  The  evident  leaning,  however,  of  the 
former  class,  has  of  late  been,  as  they  become  more  numerous, 
to  spread  wider  among  the  latter,  and  to  mingle  more  intimately 
with  them,  in  practical  studies  and  active  pursuits,  so  as  to  begin 
to  form  rather  a  real  republic  of  letters,  more  broad  and  equal, 
like  our  civil  rights,  and  higher  in  the  estimation  of  the  whole 
community.  All  its  members  are  thus  more  inclined  to  be,  and 
to  be  acknowledged  as  actual  worJcing  men,  in  their  appropriate 
'spheres ;  nor  do  most  of  them  deem  it  at  all  derogatory  to  labor 
there  quite  as  hard  as  those  who  guide  the  plough  or  wield  the 
sledge  and  hammer. 

If  it  be  asked  why  our  history  has  not  been  more  prolific  in 
institutions  well  calculated  to  aid  in  attainments  of  the  very  high- 
est character  in  polite  literature  and  the  severe  sciences,  and 
what  have  been  the  consequences  on  our  national  character,  and 
the  progress  of  society  here  ?  we  answer,  that,  without  detracting 
at  all  firom  the  utility  of  these  pursuits,  in  proper  circumstances, 
and  by  people  of  affluence  or  leisure,  it  must  be  manifest  (and 
no  American  need  blush  at  the  acknowledgment)  that  the  whole 
fabric  of  our  political  system  has  been,  and  still  is,  in  respect  to 
education,  founded  on  the  difiusion  of  elementary  knowledge 
more  widely  among  the  people  at  large,  rather  than  on  the  pro- 
motion of  greater  acquirements  within  narrow  limits.     It  seeks 


25     • 

likewise,  to  bring  infbnnation  immediately  useful  to  every  door, 
and  to  tempt  all  to  listen  and  learn,  rather  than  to  carry  what 
is  abstruse  or  ornamental  into  the  higher  circles  alone,  or  to 
encourage  those  pursuits  which,  by  their  elegance  or  refinement 
in  taste,  are  calculated  principally  to  amuse  the  learned  or  fash- 
ionable, or  to  employ  the  leisure  of  the  wealthy  in  an  old  and 
dense  population. 

This  policy  has  been  better  suited  to  our  youthful  and  equal 
institutions.  It  comported  well  with  our  condition  in  regard 
to  the  cultivation  of  vast  and  fertile  regions  of  territory  yet 
unimproved,  and  with  a  rapidly-increasing  population,  requiring 
first  to  be  supplied  with  sound  practical  information  on  political 
rights  and  duties,  with  agricultural  skill,  and  with  manufactures 
and  mechanic  arts  of  prime  necessity.  Hence,  though  science, 
here  as  elsewhere,  has  more  than  once  "  walked  the  fiirrow  with 
the  consul  swain,"  yet,  in  the  first  instance,  and  no  astonishment 
need  be  entertained  abroad  at  the  fact,  we  have  generally  (and 
commendably)  been  much  more  eager  to  become  good  axemen, 
ploughmen,  and  swordsmen  than  mere  book-men.  We  have 
been  more  ambitious  in  such  a  stage  of  our  national  career  to  fill 
the  hive  of  industry  with  new  swarms,  ready  to  distil  honey  and 
defend  it,  rather  than  to  consume  it.  What  have  been  some  of 
the  most  striking  consequences  from  this  policy  concerning  edu- 
cation and  equality  of  rights,  as  exhibited  in  our  history,  and 
more  especially  in  later  years?  The  whole  mind  of  society, 
instead  of  the  intellects  of  a  few,  has  thus  been  excited.  We 
have,  in  one  sense,  fostered  a  levelling  principle ;  but  it  has  been 
to  level  up,  rather  than  down — ^by  raising  the  low,  rather  than 
lowering  the  high. 

The  general  influence  of  such  a  system  has  been  to  promote 
utility,  instead  of  ornament  or  display  ;  to  ask  the  cui  bono  as  to 
every  project,  private  or  public ;  to  advance  the  comforts  rather 
than  the  luxuries  of  life ;  to  gratify  the  wants  of  the  many  rather 
than  the  caprices  of  the  few ;  to  carry  "  plenty  through  a  smiling 
land"  to  every  fireside,  rather  than  the  means  of  voluptuousness 
to  the  rich  alone ;  to  improve  morals,  school  the  feelings  severe- 
ly, and  respect  the  decencies  of  society,  more  than  embellish 
4 


26 

manners ;  to  encourage  simplicity  of  life,  directness  of  purpose, 
and  purity  as  well  as  manliness  and  inflexibility  of  conduct ;  to 
strengthen  rather  than  to  polish,  even  at  the  risk  sometimes  of 
roughness,  if  not  ixideness ;  and  in  lieu  of  effeminacy  or  an  ex- 
traordinary mass  of  mental  acquirements,  to  promote  decision  of 
character,  and  secure  to  all  the  perfect  knowledge  and  use  of  a 
few  great  and  simple  truths  in  politics,  religion,  and  civil  rights, 
so  as  in  all  respects  to  form  useful,  "  high-minded  men,"  instead 
of  "  starred  and  spangled  courts." 

History  show^s  that  the  public  policy  forced  on  us  by  the  same 
salutary  influences,  has  been  to  cultivate  peace,  commerce,  and 
mutual  benevolence  with  all  nations,  rather  than  to  indulge  in 
arms  or  conquest,  and  to  rely  on  reason  and  justice  for  our  rights 
more  than  on  the  arts  of  diplomacy  or  the  ultima  ratio  regum. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  we  have  done  this  without  hazarding  any 
unwise  neglect  of  the  latter,  or  declining  a  resort  to  force  when 
required  by  honor  or  duty — reason  before  arms,  but  arms  before 
disgrace.  It  shows,  also,  that  though  originally  planted  in  most 
cases  amidst  idolatry  and  heathenism,  we  became,  by  the  surpas- 
sing excellence  of  our  political  systems,  as  far  removed  from  the 
propagation,  by  Mahometan  violence,  of  the  divine  tenets  of  the 
Bible,  though  anxious  peacefully  to  send  them  for  the  conversion 
of  all  nations,  as  we  are  removed  from  the  fierce  Corsair  spirit  of 
plunder,  or  the  lust  of  warlike  empire,  which  have  so  often 
inflamed  and  devastated  much  of  the  earth. 

Hence  have  sprung  our  leisure,  taste,  and  success  in  such 
numerous  improvements  in  the  arts  of  common  life.  In  the  best 
and  widest  pursuit  of  man,  what  various  experiments  on  new 
seeds,  crops,  and  dressings,  on  new  farming-tools  and  new 
domestic  animals,  have  penetrated  almost  every  glade  and  moun- 
tain, and  threaded  almost  every  stream  from  the  St.  Croix  to  the 
Sabine  ! 

Among  the  models  which  crowd  our  patent  office — I  should 
say  which  once  crowded  it — that  pride  and  emblem  of  Ameri- 
can ingenuity  whose  recent  loss  we  all  deplore — the  plough,  the 
barrow,  the  threshing-machine,  the  winnowing-raill,  the  hoe,  and 
the  churn,  with  a  myriad  of  other  instruments,  improved  or 


27 

invented  to  facilitate  the  various  operations  of  agricultural  in- 
dustry, filled  a  large  space,  and  showed  strongly  the  practical 
tendency  to  absorb  here  so  great  a  share  of  intellectual  exertion, 
in  the  accomphshment  of  only  useful  results.  How  many  have 
thus  achieved  in  substance  what  Swift  pronounced  to  be  more 
praiseworthy  than  all  the  labors  of  mere  politicians — the  saluta- 
ry, if  not  splendid  improvement,  of  making  two  blades  of  grass 
grow  where  only  one  grew  before. 

The  mechanic  arts,  as  connected  with  agriculture  and  manu- 
factures, have  also  profited  greatly  by  this  general  impulse  of  the 
public  mind.  It  is  true  that  many  of  the  greatest  changes  in  the 
machinery  for  spinning  and  weaving  have  originated  elsewhere ; 
but  they  have  been  readily  adopted,  and  much  improved,  in  this 
country ;  and,  aided  by  the  wonderful  results  from  the  cotton- 
gin,  whose  invention  and  merits  are  exclusively  American,  have 
caused  an  entire  revolution  in  the  household  economy  of  many 
of  the  States,  and  studded  thousands  of  our  waterfalls  with 
thrifty  villages.  Performing  here,  by  machinery,  in  the  cotton 
manufactory  alone,  what  a  century  ago  would  have  required  the 
manual  labor  of  at  least  twenty  millions  of  people,  v^e  have  with 
avidity  seized  not  only  on  that  but  all  other  labor-savmg  inven- 
tions, and  done  our  full  share  in  bettering  and  increasing  what 
has  in  various  ways  contributed  nearly  as  much  as  the  introduc- 
tion of  printing,  or  gunpowder,  to  advance  the  wealth,  comfort, 
inteUigence,  and  consequent  privileges  of  the  middling  classes 
among  mankind. 

The  daughters  of  the  mechanic  or  farmer,  by  such  results,  are 
able  to  wear  ornaments  which  royalty  would  once  have  envied, 
and  by  other  discoveries  and  improvements  of  a  recent  date,  are 
decked  with  laces  fi:om  our  own  sea-island  cottons,  of  which  both 
the  fineness  and  elegance  exceed  all,  either  known  or  fancied,  by 
the  Sapphos  or  Cornelias  of  antiquity.  The  same  impulse  has 
led  us  to  push  researches  still  more  deeply  into  commercial 
enterprises  with  distant  regions — whether  to  the  Frozen  ocean, 
'*  the  furthest  Ind,"  or  the  isles  of  the  Pacific  ;  and  whether  to 
bring  back  rich  returns  for  our  ice  and  rocks  in  the  East,  or  for 
the  abundant  staples  of  the  South.     But,  above  all,  after  devi- 


28 

sing  numerous  changes  to  facilitate  intercourse  at  home  by  newly- 
planned  bridges  and  improved  roads  and  canals,  this  impulse  has 
at  last,  as  has  been  better  said  in  substance  elsewhere,*  placed 
upon  them  and  on  navigable  waters,  not  only  fleeter  and  more 
capacious  vehicles  and  vessels,  but  substituted  for  animal  power 
and  sails,  through  American  as  well  as  English  perseverance  and 
skill,  an  element  which  has  outstripped  the  winds  in  speed, 
almost  annihilated  time  and  space,  and  seems  destined  to  advance 
the  progress  of  nearly  every  art  which  civilizes  and  enriches 
man. 

This  new  power  has  been  taught,  also,  to  enter  the  workshop 
and  manufactory,  as  well  as  to  course  roads,  rivers,  and  oceans — 
to  speed  the  plough,  the  shuttle,  and  the  spinning-wheel,  as  well 
as  empty  docks,  excavate  harbors,  and  plunge  into  the  deepest 
mines.  It  is  a  curious  historical  fact  that,  though  we  are  by 
some  denied  the  merit  of  having  first  applied  steam  with  success 
to  navigation,  and  are  confessedly  a  less  numerous,  less  wealthy, 
less  commercial,  and  less  scientific  people  than  our  competitors 
for  this  great  improvement,  there  are  now  upon  our  various 
waters  more  than  six  hundred  steamboats  to  their  four  or  five 
hundred,  and,  firom  the  large  size  of  many  of  our  vessels,  a 
greater  excess  in  proportion  of  tonnage  employed  in  steam  navi- 
gation. By  the  frigate  Fulton,  we  were  first,  also,  to  apply  it 
to  purposes  of  vvar,  that  great  theatre  where,  perhaps,  its  greatest 
powers  may  yet  be  developed.  By  a  singular  combination  of 
mechanical  intelligence  and  skill,  in  several  other  instances  we 
have  converted  philosophy  into  a  means  of  security  as  well  as 
wealth;  and  if  Franklin,  alone,  had  lived,  and  dared,  as  he 
dared,  and  drawn,  as  he  drew,  the  lightning  of  heaven  harmless 
fi-om  the  clouds,  it  would  have  been  an  epoch  in  useful  inventions 
and  practical  application  of  science  to  the  safety  of  social  life 
which  alone  would  have  immortalized  the  country  of  his  birth. 

Why  are  these  themes  so  exhilarating  and  so  engrossing  to  an 
American  ?  Not  that  he  is  boastful  of  being  the  discoverer  of 
more  new  powers  than  others,  though  he  has  succeeded  in  their 
application  to  more  new  and  useful  purposes,  and  which  last, 

*_Edinburgh  Review. 


29 

Lord  Bacon  considered  as  almost  equally  commendable,  while  it 
is  manifestly  quite  as  beneficial ;  nor  merely  that  he  filled  your 
patent  office  with  more  than  ten  thousand  models  of  inventions 
and  improvements — but  that  he  has  done  those,  and  at  the 
same  time  successfully  introduced  numberless  others,  without 
patents,  and  without  hesitation,  from  a  peculiar  characteristic 
of  our  people,  growing  out  of  their  wide-spread  and  practical 
education,  evinced  in  their  universal  eagerness  to  better  their 
condition — in  their  constant  aspirations  for  advancement  in  the 
world — and  in  their  readiness  to  adopt,  at  once,  every  advan- 
tage within  their  grasp,  from  regions  however  remote.  Van- 
quishing all  obstinate  prejudices  against  novelty  or  innovation — 
existing  too  often  still  in  benighted  monarchies,  and  aided  by  the 
diversified  origin  of  portions  of  our  population,  whether  from  the 
British  Islands,  the  Rhine,  or  the  Alps,  the  Seine,  the  Baltic,  or 
the  Tagus,  our  liberality  and  tolerating  spirit  have  thus  sought  to 
extract  and  cherish  every  excellence  from  every  climate  and 
government,  in  every  science  and  art.  This  flexibility  of  dispo- 
sition, without  servilely  aping  the  habits  of  any  one  nation,  has 
contributed  to  convert  the  country  into  a  sort  of  social  Pantheon, 
to  receive  within  its  limits  the  professed  advantages  of  all  other 
people,  and  as  recommended  by  the  great  author  of  the  Novum 
Organum,  to  bring  them  all  ad  eocperimentum  cruds. 

We  are,  in  fact,  the  great  laboratoiy  of  the  world,  to  try 
every  doubtful  substance  in  the  crucible. 

In  this  mode  our  progress  in  the  useful  arts  as  well  as  in  gov- 
ernment, has  been  much  accelerated,  without  serious  political 
hazards  or  convulsions ;  and  our  history  has  exhibited  a  feature 
from  which  still  higher  hopes  of  advancement  among  us  here- 
after may,  with  propriety,  be  indulged. 

Seizing,  readily,  on  all  the  treasures  scattered  through  the 
records  of  the  last  six  thousand  years,  or  discovered  and  gleaned, 
from  time  to  time,  by  our  enterprising  commerce  in  every  habi- 
table quarter  of  the  globe,  we  make  the  whole  world,  in  some 
degree,  tributary  to  our  progress.  We  take  our  stoves  and 
wooden  pavements  as  quickly  from  Russia  as  our  machinery 
from  England.     We  drink  our  tea  as  agreeably  coming  from  the 


30 

worshippers  of  the  Grand  Lama,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
globe,  as  if  we  brought  it  from  Brazil ;  and  find  our  drugs  as 
medicinal,  and  our  figs  as  palatable  from  the  Turk  and  the  plains 
of  Troy,  as  if  they  grew  in  Florida  or  Mexico. 

We  have  drawn  likewise  for  supplies  of  national  names  and 
examples,  on  Pagan  as  well  as  Christian — ancient  as  well  as 
modem — civilized  and  savage  models,  wherever   we  find   any 
thing  deemed  worthy  of  imitation.     We  seek  all — visit   all — 
imitate  all — trade  with  all.      We  only  ask  if  benefits  can  be 
received  or  conferred.     In  declaring  our  independence  of  foreign 
control,  we  never  regarded  ourselves  as  independent  of  either 
the  commerce,  arts,  or  literature  of  the  great  commonwealth  of 
all  civilized   people — nor  independent,  whether  individually  or 
collectively,  of  the  duties  of  kindness  and  reciprocal  interchange 
of  advantages ;  but  rather  independent  of  any  political  domina- 
tion not  freely  established  by  ourselves,  independent  in  our  sys- 
tems of  legislation,   independent  in  our  modes  of  thought  and 
action,  aiid  independent,  as  it  becomes  us  always  to  be,  as  well 
as  unmindful,  of  the  frowns  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  while  con- 
vinced that,  in  the  cause  of  conferring  the  greatest  good  on  the 
greatest  number,  we  are  engaged  in  a  cause  which  conscience 
approves,  and  pursue  it  by  means  to  which  reason  and  virtue 
have  long  given  their  sanction.     But,  conscious,  from  the  spirit- 
ual principle  within,  when  not  debased,  that  "  men  would  be 
angels,"  and  are  often  rashly  aspiring,  one  of  the  great  excellen- 
cies in  our  progress  has  been  its  general  caution  and  moderation, 
and  its  vigilance  not  to  be  misled  by  that  ambitious  and  restless 
principle.      Though  aiming  at  almost  every  thing — attempting 
almost  every  thing — accomplishing  almost  every  thing,  practica- 
ble, yet  we  have  still  been  regulated  by  the  severe  training  be- 
fore alluded  to — and  have  been  restrained  in  most  cases,  however 
much  has  been  said  and  speculated  to  the  contrary,  from  wasting 
our  resources  and  energies  on  impracticable  schemes,    attracted 
merely  by  their  splendor  or  novelty.     Whether  mere  day  dreams 
of  speculators  as  to  moneyed  enterprises  at  home,  or  enthusiastic 
theories  for  new  political  crusades  abroad  have  been  urged  upon 
us,  we  have  generally  looked  in  all  things  to  the  cardinal  test  of 


31 

utility  and  safety ;  and,  however  the  shore  may  be  strewed  with 
occasional  wrecks,  the  great  mass  of  society  have  not  usually 
looked  thus  in  vain.  Trying  if  not  exhausting  most  of  all  that 
has  yet  been  discovered — gleaning  from  all  the  known  world — we 
are  now,  by  the  Southern  exploring  expedition,  if  favorable  op- 
portunities offer,  about  to  push  still  further  our  researches  into  un- 
known latitudes — and  if  not  adding  to  the  treasures  of  science  in 
perfecting  the  researches  of  astronomers,  geographers,  and  na- 
turalists, at  least  to  increase  the  extent  and  security  of  trade  in  old 
if  not  new  channels — on  old  if  not  new  objects — and  to  perform 
an  act  of  justice  to  other  nations  in  contributing  our  share  to  the 
laudable  efforts  hitherto  made  by  a  number  of  them  in  the  great 
cause  of  discovery.  At  least  we  shall  no  longer  be  censured  for 
holding  back  our  common  exertions,  common  contributions,  and 
common  sacrifices  to  advance  the  knowledge  of  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  in  that  way  to  improve  our  species.     (Note  F.) 

This  practical  education,  chastened  and  controlled  as  it  has 
been  in  most  cases  by  sound  morals,  has  in  fact  rendered  our 
history  in  many  respects  more  like  a  picture  of  the  imagination 
than  a  representation  of  real  life,  as  man  has  existed  in  other 
ages  and  under  different  institutions. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  be  understood  as  supposing  that  there 
has  been  no  new  impulse  imparted  elsewhere  to  the  arts,  or  to 
human  rights  since  Vandal  irruptions  have  ceased  to  overwhelm 
nations,  and  that  no  salutary  progress  is  making  abroad  in  ma- 
ny governments  by  means  of  improved  commerce  and  better 
examples,  in  the  increase  of  democratic  principles — liberal  ideas 
— ^useful  inventions — or  more  widely  diffused  education. 

But  my  inquiries  are  limited,  by  the  character  of  our  society, 
solely  to  American  history,  and  my  claims  in  behalf  of  America 
or  the  United  States  in  particular,  are  only  to  their  striking 
influences  or  reactions  on  Europe  itself — to  their  more  rapid 
progress  in  improvements  merely  useful — to  their  more  solid 
foundations  of  equal  liberty  and  more  liberal  and  concentrated 
application  of  all  that  exists  elsewhere  of  practical  profit  and 
good  for  man  at  large,  rather  than  the  higher  classes — than  what 
has  heretofore  distinguished  him  in  most  other  countries. 


32 

During  the  century  and  a  half  which  preceded  the  Revolu- 
tion, increasing,  though  under  foreign  restraint,  from  handfuls  of 
feeble  emigrants  to  a  population  of  three  millions,  and  opening 
respectable  commercial  intercourse  abroad,  we  penetrated  with 
the  axe  and  plough  to  the  first  mountain  ridges  of  our  extensive 
territory.  Even  this  was  deemed  a  marvel,  and  excited  the 
envy  and  cupidity  of  others  to  check  our  prosperity,  monopolize 
our  trade,  and  control  our  progress. 

But,  when  emancipated  from  every  species  of  interference 
from  abroad,  by  achieving  independence,  and  left  to  form  those 
constitutions,  establish  those  equal  laws,  which  our  condition  jus- 
tified, and  to  excite  that  enterprise  and  industry  to  operate  more 
widely,  which  had  already  contributed  so  much  to  make  us  what 
we  were,  and  to  sanction  all  we  hoped  to  be,  history  shows  that, 
within  about  a  half  a  century,  or  little  more  than  the  moiety  of 
the  life  of  many  an  individual,  that  population  proceeded  to  in- 
crease from  three  to  fifteen  millions,  that  territory  more  than 
doubled,  and  widened  from  the  Atlantic  and  its  declivities  to  the 
Pacific ;  that  foreign  commerce  augmented  fi*om  a  few  thousand 
dollars  in  value  yearly  to  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions, 
each,  of  imports  and  exports ;  manufactures,  released  firom 
colonial  thraldom,  extended  in  many  branches,  not  only  to  supply 
fully  the  domestic  demand,  but  added  several  millions  to  our 
foreign  trade  ;  agriculture  bringing  new  staples  to  perfection,  and, 
aided  by  mechanical  ingenuity,  furnished  a  raw  material  in  cot- 
ton, for  almost  the  whole  of  Europe  as  well  as  America ;  pro- 
vided ourselves,  in  a  large  degree,  with  many  of  the  other 
essentials  of  life,  such  as  salt,  iron,  sugar  and  woollens,  and 
scattered  comfort  and  civilization,  not  only  fi-om  the  seaboard  to 
the  Alleghanies,  but  from  the  AUeghanies  to  the  great  monarch 
of  rivei-s,  and  from  him  rapidly  westward,  till,  ere  long,  it  must 
reach  the  Rocky  mountains,  if  not  the  Western  ocean.  With- 
in the  same  brief  period,  that  history  describes  us  to  the  rest  of 
mankind  as  having  created  a  navy,  secondary  in  size  and  effi- 
ciency to  only  two  or  three  in  the  world ;  as  having  formed  and 
sustained  various  institutions  of  enviable  excellence,  and  done 
more  to  illustrate  and  perfect  political  economy  than  half  the 


33 

ages  and  authors  which  preceded  us ;  because,  uniting  in  our  sys- 
tem the  practical  man  and  philosopher,  and  making  one  co- 
operate with  the  other  in  furnishing  facts  for  science,  and  science 
for  facts. 

We  have  also  conducted  triumphantly  several  foreign  wars 
and  negotiations,  and  discharged  all  the  burdens  of  one  to 
two  hundred  millions  of  national  debt,  incurred  in  securing  our 
independence  and  subsequent  national  privileges,  as  well  as  in 
enlarging  our  territory  and  building  up  all  our  inestimable  insti- 
tutions and  great  works  of  public  convenience  or  improvement. 
Last,  but  not  least,  besides  rendering  common  the  use  of  written 
constitutions  for  the  safety  of  human  rights,  in  almost  every  quar- 
ter of  the  globe,  not  merely  rights  political,  but  rights  civil  and 
social,  and  well  adapted  to  secure  the  whole  against  the  causes 
and  from  the  consequences  of  both  violated  charters  and  broken 
compacts ;  we  have,  above  all,  furnished  in  the  person  and  by 
the  efforts  of  Roger  Williams,  the  self-denying  but  resolute 
seceder,  on  the  margin  of  an  humble  river,  now  adorned  with 
manufactories,  churches,  and  colleges,  the  splendid  triumph  of 
the  great  doctrine  which  soon  spreading  to  Maryland  and  Penn- 
sylvania, now  pervades  the  whole  Union,  of  entire  liberty  of 
conscience,  and  total  freedom  in  religious  matters  from  the  dicta- 
tion of  civil  power. 

These  are  the  obelisks  and  pyramids  we  have  raised — ^the 
triumphal  arches,  built  for  posterity  to  admire !  These  have 
been  a  few  of  the  consequences  of  our  principles.  It  is  by 
these,  and  efforts  such  as  these,  that  our  march  is  still  forward  in 
a  career  of  prosperity  as  unexampled  as  it  is  glorious.  When 
our  opinions  are  misrepresented — our  institutions  vilified — our 
ancestors  and  rulers  assailed — ^we  can  proudly  point  to  our  his- 
tory and  say,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

Though  in  many  respects  we  have  ceased  to  be  the  infant 
Hercules,  yet  in  others  we  are  still,  as  Burke  once  beautifully 
said  of  us,  quite  in  the  gristle  of  youth,  and  it  is  hoped,  aspire 
not  to  reach  the  hardiness  of  manhood  in  all  things,  till  every 
useful  application  of  science  to  art,  every  practical  progress  in 
the  great  business  of  life  as  well  as  in  government  has  been 


34 

attempted,  and  the  whole  moral  grandeur  of  our  national  position 
and  principles  developed. 

In  such  an  indefatigable  career  in  the  pursuit  of  general  use- 
fulness to  all,  and  by  all,  it  is  true,  and  far  from  derogatory,  that 
we  may  not  yet  have  collected  the  libraries  of  Gottingen  or 
Oxford,  because  our  true  policy  has  been  rather  in  the  first 
instance  to  collect  and  educate  a  population  suited  to  subdue  the 
wilderness,  establish  manufactures,  and  extend  commerce. 

Nor  may  we  have  exhibited  critics  in  the  classics  like  Scali- 
ger,  Bentley  or  Johnson,  because  our  earlier  wants  have  been 
for  critics  in  the  forms  of  government,  like  Madison,  and  critics 
in  the  forms  of  law  or  administration  of  justice,  like  Wilson  or 
Kent.  We  may  not  have  educated  mathematicians  like  Euler 
and  La  Place,  or  philosophers  like  Boyle,  because  our  similar 
geniuses,  such  a  Bowditch,  have  been  more  engaged  in  transla- 
ting and  applying  the  reasonings  of  others  to  navigation  and 
practical  life,  and,  as  Franklin,  Fulton,  Godfrey,  and  a  host  of 
inventors  and  benefactors,  in  rendering  useful  to  their  country 
the  doctrines,  sciences,  and  discoveries  of  former  ages  as  well  as 
their  own.  Nor  have  we  produced  Byrons,  Raphaels,  and 
Canovas,  nor  courted  the  muses  and  the  graces  with  as  distin- 
guished success  in  those  thousand  other  attractive  forms  so  com- 
mon in  older  countries,  because  our  ambition  has  rather  been 
directed  to  what  naturally  precedes  those  in  society^  to  the  per- 
formance of  deeds  worthy  the  immortality  conferred  by  the  poet, 
the  painter,  and  the  sculptor. 

It  is  mortifying  to  see  our  position  in  these  respects  so 
often  and  so  obstinately  misunderstood.  The  pert  sarcasms 
of  many  might  have  been  spared,  had  they  reflected  that 
the  judicious  here  never  presented  claims  for  any  peculiar  dis- 
tinction, however  brilliant,  occasionally,  has  been  the  success 
of  many  among  us  in  belles-lettres,  and  all  those  pursuits  which 
are  the  usual  result  of  only  great  wealth  and  the  amplest  leisure. 
On  the  contrary,  we  have,  with  much  superior  wisdom,  consi- 
dering our  true  position,  and  probably  with  not  less  real  talent, 
and  certainly  with  equal  industry,  been  principally  devoted  to 
the  business  much  more  natural,  appropriate,  and  important,  in 


3b 


our  youthful  stage  of  society  and  with  our  vast  physical  resour- 
ces, to  the  useful  business  of  converting  forests  into  fruitful  fields, 
bridging  rivers,  spanning  mountains  with  roads,  uniting  seas  by 
canals,  and  making  every  hill  and  valley  vocal  with  beings,  in- 
dustrious, moral,  intelligent,  and  happy,  by  training,  as  far  and. 
fast  as  practicable,  the  whole  population,  whether  wealthy  or  in- 
digent, native  or  alien,  to  self-government,  and  the  enjoyment  as 
well  as  preservation  of  equal  rights  and  well-regulated  liberty. 

What  do  your  annals  show^  has  been  the  result  of  all  this  ? 
Not  the  highest  perfection  in  what  the  community  generally,  or 
the  Government,  never  sought — In  poetry,  painting,  statuary, 
monumental  piles,  or  splended  architecture — but  great  success 
in  the  wise  objects  of  their  true  ambition — in  the  enlightenment 
and  comforts  of  the  population  at  large,  for  whom  and  by  whom 
the  country  has  been  conquered,  planted,  civiUzed,  and  ruled. 
By  that  policy  and  success  we  have,  instead  of  remaining  a 
people  among  whom  to  read  was  so  rare  when  America  was 
discovered  as  to   confer    an   exemption  from   punishment  by 
the  benefit  of  clergy,  become  a   universally  reading   people. 
Without  the  help  of  kings,  peers,  or  prelates,  as  legislators,  we 
have  also  became  a   writing  and  "  calculating"  people,  more 
versed  in  the  best  elements  of  education  than  many  of  their 
titled  ancestors ;  and  among  whom  their  language  is,  by  the  wide 
action  of  the  press  on  the  people  and  the  people  on  the  press, 
spoken  with  more  purity  and  uniformity  than  the  language  of  any 
country  of  similar  size  in  Europe.     A  people  better  clothed  than 
half  the  subjects  of  the  proudest  Edwards;  a  people  better 
housed  than  those  of  the  Henries ;  better  furnished  and  fed  than 
Elizabeth's,  and  better  protected  in  every  valuable  right  than 
those  of  all  the  Williams  and  Louises  of  any  age  and  nation. 
A  people,  in  fine,  who,  rather  than  their  rulers,  are  sovereign  in 
all  things,  and  being  an  educated  and  moral  people,  can  be,  and 
are,  behind  and  over  all  their  governments,  safely  empowered, 
as  sovereign,  to  change  or  destroy  at  pleasure  every  institution 
and  law,  and  reconstruct  them  in  the  peaceful  mode  established 
by  their  constitutions. 

This  consideration  leads  me  to  a  brief  notice  of  a  few  other 


36 

circumstances  which  have  transpired  here  in  connexion  with  our 
new  constitutions  and  new  systems  of  jurisprudence,  which  are 
among  the  most  interesting  to  the  human  race  of  any  that  re- 
sulted from  the  discovery  of  America.     As  before  suggested, 
while  presenting  during  a  century  and  a  half,  a  theatre  on  which 
the  oppressed  and  enterprising  might  exhibit  more  freely  their 
various  principles,  aspirations,  and  experiments,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  man,  the  training  for  self-government  on  those  princi- 
ples, and  in  forms  most  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  the  gov- 
erned, seemed  at  length  to  be  nearly  completed,  when  the  Revo- 
lution rendered  us  independent,  and  prostrated  every  barrier  which 
had  before  existed  against  putting  all  those  principles  into  more 
efficient  practice.      The  fruit  of  liberty  had  become  nearly  ripe 
for  plucking,  and  hence  was  not  destined  to  be  in  its  taste,  as  in 
France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  elsewhere,  so  often  hke  the  apples  of 
Sodom.     Our  fathers  had  read,  reflected,  and  reasoned  deeply, 
and  knew  society  must  be  held  together  by  some  strong  cement, 
or  the  inherent  love  for  the  state  of  nature  and  individual  inde- 
pendence which  actuates  most  human  beings,  would  lead  to 
separation  or  dissolution,  if  not  to  mutual  aggression.      That 
cement  is  usually  a  clear  conviction  of  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  society,  or  is  mere  arbitrary  power,  accompanied  sometimes 
by  fraud  and  delusion.     We  had  rid  ourselves  from  the  domina- 
tion of  any  portion  of  such  power  in  our  former  oppressors,  and 
were  to  commence  the  task  of  moulding  institutions  which  might 
in  some  way  secure  to  us  more  perfect  freedom,  and  at  the  same 
time  be  adapted  to  confer  equal  if  not  greater  protection  and 
prosperity .     But  a  continuance  of  monarchy  was  so  abhorred  in 
any  shape  that  it  seems  scarcely  to  have  been  dreamed  of.    Yet, 
in  rejecting  that  or  any  other  arbitrary  power,  as  a  cement  or 
preservative,  whether  foreign  or  domestic  in  its  origin,  and  how- 
ever derived,  it  became  obvious  to  the  reflecting  that  an  extraor- 
dinary substitute  must  be  found  in  some  other  elements  of  politi- 
cal cohesion.     Hence  the  prophets  of  royal  prerogative  were  full 
of  mischievous  predictions  as  to  the  incapacity  of  our  people  to 
govern  themselves,  and  as  to  an  early  catastrophe  of  the  whole 
system.     Even  the  friends  of  equaj  rights  began  to  feel  some 


37 

slight  apprehensions  at  the  prospect.     But  having  ascertained, 
during  the  old  confederation,  that  there  must  be  a  given  or  suffi- 
cient quantity  of  pov^rer  in  order  to  make  a  nation,  hke  a  planet, 
revolve  steadily  in  its  proper  orbit ;  and  hence,  if  one  kind  of  it, 
that  from  an  arbitrary  origin,  was  diminished,  the  other  kind, 
that  from  a  voluntary  origin,  and  resting  in  the  general  informa- 
tion and  sound  moral  principles  of  the  community,  mth  laws  and 
government  more  beneficial  and  equal,  established  by  them  must 
be  proportionally  strengthened  or  increased — the   founders  of 
our  present  constitutions  set  about  their  new  duties  with  earnest- 
ness and  vigor.     The  wise,  the  good,  and  the  talented  through- 
out the  land,  all  with  a  chivalrous  spirit,  co-operated  in  rousing 
the  intelligence  and  virtue  of  the  people  to  increased  efforts 
in  establishing  institutions  productive  of  the  greatest  benefits, 
not  only   to  the  separate  States  but   to   the   Union.      They 
thus  guarded   us  against  "the  dark    and  dishonest  intrigues" 
of  kings  abroad  or  demagogues  at  home,  and  prevented  us  fi-om 
falling  again  into  colonial  dependance,  or  into  those  divisions, 
anarchy,  and  licentiousness,  which  are  the  bane  of  all  national 
improvement.     They  co-operated,  also,  in  creating  those  securi- 
ties for  property  and  person  as  well  as  for  State  rights — ^in  fulfil- 
ling those  obligations  of  public  in^debtedness,  and  in  yielding  that 
equal  protection  to  all  branches  of  industry  which  good  faith  and 
national  prosperity  required ;  and  in  rallying,  on  every  fit  occa- 
sion, to  the  aid  of  order,  law,  and  liberty,  all  the  intellectual  and 
moral  energies  of  the  whole  population. 

The  true  philosophy  which,  therefore,  was  made  to  pervade 
our  new  constitutional  and  legislative  systems,  was  the  offspring 
of  this  discovery  of  a  necessity  to  make  those  systems  a  source 
of  increased  advantages  to  all  affected  by  them,  and  to  strengthen 
or  secure  government  by  greater  attention  to  education  and 
morals,  and  by  making  more  frequent  invocations  to  their  aid 
in  the  absence  of  arbitrary  power  and  severer  laws.  Hence 
they  began  by  offering  benefits  alone,  and  by  removing  all 
restraints  fi-om  expatriation  by  those  who  at  any  time  might  be- 
come discontented  with  their  portion  derived  from  the  conimon 
fund  of  advantages,  political  and  social,  or  be  dissatisfied  with 


38 

the  umpirage  of  that  majority  in  the  Government  which,  though 
so  often  pronounced  a  tyrant,  must  lay  the  basis  of  all  free 
society.  They  next  were  careful  to  leave  neither  individual 
nor  State  without  a  due  share  of  rights,  not  only  in  the  Govern- 
ment itself,  but  under  it ;  to  recognise  politically  no  distinction  of 
plebeian  or  patrician,  and  generally  none  of  Cathohc,  Jew,  or 
Protestant ;  to  control  neither  the  person  nor  property,  where  the 
individual  had  been  educated  to  the  self-management  of  them, 
except  so  far  as  was  indispensable  for  mere  public  objects ;  to 
disclaim  all  power  not  voluntarily  conferred ;  to  make  all  govern- 
ment be  regarded  as  a  blessing,  when  and  so  far  as  it  was  resort- 
ed to,  rather  than  an  unnecessary  restraint,  and  to  impart  civil 
power  to  and  over  none  in  any  case,  further  than  was  necessary 
to  enforce  justly  the  laws  of  the  majority.  As  a  general  rule, 
nothing  but  gross  ignorance  or  vice  were  ever  permanently  put 
to  the  ban  of  exclusion  from  a  proportionate  participation  in 
public  affairs. 

In  order  to  ensure  more  certainly  the  faithful  discharge  of 
official  duty,  by  all  to  whom  power  was  with  jealousy  con- 
fided, one  great  characteristic  of  tlieir  political  system  has 
been  its  more  complete  separation  of  the  legislative,  execu- 
tive, and  judicial  departments  of  the  Government  from  mixture, 
and  thus  rendering  the  discharge  of  duties  under  each  of  them 
more  simple  and  easy.  They  also  established  much  more  rigid 
checks  and  balances  in  legislation  itself,  and  official  accountabili- 
ty has  been  greatly  and  almost  constantly  on  the  increase,  by 
shortening  the  term  of  office,  as  well  as  surrounding  it  with  other 
new  guards  and  responsibilities.  This  frequent  and  full  reckon- 
inof  between  the  electors  and  the  elected,  exacts  a  more  rigorous 
responsibility  than  generally  has  characterized  any  other  govern- 
ment, however  popular  and  free ;  and,  while  it  may  be  open  to 
the  imputation  of  some  encroachment  upon  individual  and  official 
independence,  it  secures,  what  in  our  system  is  generally  deemed 
more  essential,  a  conformity  in  official  action  with  the  known 
will  and  wishes  of  those  who  made  and  conferred  the  office,  and 
who  are  chiefly  to  benefit  or  suffer  by  all  the  measures  of  men 
in  office.     It  constitutes,  also,  a  more  effectual  preventive  to  the 


39 

usurpations  of  power — power,  which,  in  its  general  tendencies, 
is  often  insidious,  voracious,  and  selfish  ;  which  is  apt  to  increase 
its  appetite  by  indulgence,  and  which,  unless  vigilantly  watched 
and  frequently  summoned  to  account,  is  prone  to  steal  from 
the  many  to  the  few,  till  every  vestige  of  real  liberty  is  lost. 
The  amplest  authority  was  conferred  to  constitute  a  government 
both  salutary  and  efficient  for  all  useful  purposes,  but  not  a 
pittance  for  pageantry  or  oppression. 

It  will  be  perceived,  from  only  these  general  suggestions,  how 
different  has  been  the  character  of  our  efforts  here  for  self-gov- 
ernment, from  what  they  have  often  been  elsewhere,  whether  in 
ancient  or  modem  history  ;  and  how  strikingly  most  of  the  caus- 
es of  their  difference  can  be  traced  to  that  practical  education 
and  sound  morals  which  have  so  thoroughly  pervaded  this  coun- 
try, and  which  may  well  be  deemed  the  strongest  citadel  of  our 
constitutions.     On  our  Northern  border,  some  sixty  years  since, 
the  Colony  whose  co-operation    was  anticipated  in  the  great 
struggle  for  independence,  was  visted  by  a  mission  from  the  old 
Congress,  of  whom  Dr.  Franklin  was  one,  and  well  provided 
with  pamphlets  and   manifestoes.     The  inhabitants,  however, 
were  found  so  generally  ignorant  as  to  be  unable  to  read  them  ; 
and  their  condition  in  this  respect  appeared  so  hopeless,  that,  on 
his  return,  he  recommended  that  the  next  embassy  should  con- 
sist of  school-masters.     What  a  signal  illustration  of  his  sagacity, 
and  of  the  importance  of  education,  is  their  history  since ! — 
showing  that,  after  half  a  century  more,  they  still  remain  in  the 
same  provincial  subjection  to  a  distant  empire,  and  in  almost  the 
same  torpid  condition,  as  to  the  great  principles  of  liberty. 

Montesquieu  and  some  others  have  mentioned  virtue  alone  as 
the  preserving  element  in  popular  governments.  But  this  is  an 
error,  if  virtue  can  be  separated  from  intelligence,  almost  as  fatal 
as  that  of  supposing  education  alone  to  be  sufficient.  Our  whole 
history  shows  that  both  have  been  intimately  combined  when- 
ever we  have  prospered  highly,  and  one  or  the  other  has  always 
been  defective,  both  in  America  and  elsew4iere,  whenever  a 
signal  failure  in  self-government  has  occurred. 

It  shows,  also,  that  the  two,  united,  become,  in  a  democracy, 


40 

the  predominant  if  not  only  legitimate  substitutes  for  arbitrary- 
power.     That  they  are  our  great  Mentors — one  to  instruct  us 
in  our  duties  as  well  as  rights,  and  the  other  to  impel  us  onward 
to  the  performance  of  them ;  one  to  enlighten,  the  other  to  con- 
vince ;  one  to  prepare  us  for  right  action,  the  other  to  make  us 
act,  or  to  give  us  proper  motives  for  exertion.     The  conviction 
of  these  momentous  truths  was  therefore  so  deep,  it  led  our  an- 
cestors to  commence  the  indulgence  of  equal  rights,  in  no  case, 
till  knowledge  existed  and  correct  principles  had  been  thoroughly 
inculcated  in  respect  to  the  use  and  character  of  those  rights ; 
instead  of  commencing,  as   in  many  other  regions,  the  rude 
levelhng  of  all  distinctions  of  political  rank  and  civil  privilege^ 
before  many  of  those  about  to  participate  in  them  were  acquaint- 
ed with  their  true  limitations  or  design,  and  before  they  were 
gradually  trained,  like  those  ancestors  and  ourselves,  almost  from 
the  cradle,  in  their  correct  exercise  and  necessary  discipline. 
Without  this  training,  or  the  education  and  morals  indispensable 
to  perfect  it,  a  grant  of  equal  political  power  and  consequently 
of  almost  unrestrained  liberty,  would  be  not  only  a  harbinger  but 
an  invitation  to  unbridled  license — to  plunder,  conflagration,  and 
indiscriminate  butchery.     Such  a  course  stands,  therefore,  con- 
demned by  reason,  condemned  by  experience,  condemned  by  all 
history.     It  would  evince  a  hatred  rather  than  love  of  our  spe- 
cies, and  prove  a  curse  to  all  within  its  sanguinary  and  fanatical 
influence.     Notwithstanding,  therefore,  some  arrogant  taunts  on 
this  subject  from  abroad,  it  would  be  usurpation  and  tyranny  for 
any  of  the  Governments  under  our  restricted  systems  to  attempt 
to  adopt  such  a  course  towards  any  class  of  unfortunate  beings, 
over  whom  no  such  authority  has  ever  been  confided  to  them  by 
the  people  or  the  States,  and  probably  from  a  just  jealousy  never 
will  be  confided.     At  the  same  time  it  would  as  clearly  be  the 
height  of  folly  if  not  insanity  for  any  Governments  which  may 
ever  possess  such  authority,  to  offer  at  once  perfect  equality  to 
candidates  so  uneducated,  undisciplined,  and  in  almost  every 
respect  grossly  unqualified. 

But  when,  how,  and  where  the  process  ought  to  begin,  are 
questions  that  have  been  perplexing  in  all  countries  as  well  as 


41 

here— that  belong  exclusively  to  such  Governments  alone  as 
possess  the  power,  and  for  their  decision  on  which  they  are 
politically  amenable  to  no  other  human  tribunal,  but  only  subject 
to  that  moral  judgment  of  civilized  mankind,  and  the  great  Gov- 
ernor of  the  universe,  to  which  all  intelligent  beings  are  equally 
subject,  for  the  correct  discharge  of  every  duty. 

The  practical  education  and  views  of  our  fathers  in  all  things, 
led  them,  also,  to  devise  new  provisions,  new  guards,  and  new 
inducements  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights  they  established. 
Their  history  shows  that,  unlike  many  other  reformers,  they  did 
not  deem  it  sufficient  to  proclaim  equahty  merely  on  parchment, 
or  only  in  some  organic  law  or  charter,  like  a  constitution — ^but 
they  carried,  gradually  though  firmly,  in  sCbstance  though  not 
in  exact  form  or  with  abstract  and  mathematical  precision,  the 
general  principle  of  equality  into  common  legislation  and  the 
usages  of  the  social  system,  so  as  to  secure  what  they  had  sought 
diligently,  and  to  prevent  the  stone  they  had  with  great  toil 
rolled  to  the  summit  from  rushing  back,  as  too  often  has  been 
the  case,  and  crushing,  in  an  unguarded  moment,  the  political 
labors  of  years. 

To  notice  a  few  more  of  the  particular  consequences  firom 
this  policy,  it  may  be  added  that  the  tenure  and  distribution  of 
property  of  intestates  were  in  time  rendered  equal ;  and  this 
alone  struck  deep  and  wide  the  roots  of  great  uniformity  of 
condition  into  our  whole  social  system.  The  feudalties,  unequal 
inheritances,  and  mortmains  of  monarchy,  in  respect  to  landed 
property,  were  also  slowly  abolished,  breaking  up  with  them 
most  of  the  overgrown  proprietary  estates,  and  large  possessions 
of  every  kind,  and  introducing  almost  universal  freeholds  and 
fee  simples,  so  that  every  citizen  could  feel  and  be  in  some 
degree  lord  of  the  soil.  The  creation  of  exclusive  privileges  and 
monopolies  of  all  kinds  was  discountenanced  in  theory,  though 
not  always  sufficiently  in  practice.  But,  in  progress  of  time, 
the  useful  substitute  has  begun  to  spread,  which  is  more  conge- 
nial to  the  intelligence  of  the  present  age  and  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  equality  of  rights,  to  permit  and  protect  joint  associations 

for  useful  objects  and  under  salutary  restrictions,  but  seldom  to 
6 


42 

make  them  exclusive.      The   elective    franchise   was  also  by 
degrees  conferred  on  man  himself,  rather  than  the  soil  or  estate 
he  owned.     Property  as  well  as  person  was  protected,  but  not 
made  a  new  power  or  independent  dominion  in  the  State.     The 
aristocracy  of  mere  money,  as  well  as  the  aristocracy  of  birth, 
was  in  time  equally  renounced  in  theory,  and  the  progress  of 
these  improvements  in  changing  many  antiquated  notions  and 
abolishing  certain  remains  of  monarchical  privileges  or  analogies, 
hke  the  growth  of  the  human  frame,  was  wisely  gradual,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  acquisition  of  new  authority,  and  the  greater 
experience  and  intelligence  of  the  community,  and  not  so  quick 
as  to  blind  with  sudden  or  excessive  light,  or  to  bewilder  the 
weak,  or  to  break  down  the  unpractised  with  the  excessive 
weight  of  unusual  power  and  responsibility.     The  administra- 
tion of  laws  and  the  enjoyment  of  equal  freedom  were  not  at 
once  rashly  conferred  on  infants  in  years  or  acquirements,  on  the 
incapable,  the  convict  and  the  slave ;  but  the  dispensation  of 
justice  was  allowed  to  be  aided  by  all  who  were  qualified  to  be 
jurors ;  legislation  intrusted  to  and  perfected  by  all  who  were 
educated  and  represented  in  it ;  arms  allowed  to  be  in  the  hands 
of  all  who  had  any  thing  to  defend ;  and  all  the  laws,  like  the 
shell  of  the  marine   animal,  formed  not  to  suit  others,  or  by 
others,  such  as  the  inheritable  Lycurguses  or  Solons  of  a  mon- 
archy, but  to  suit  as  well  those  who  needed  the  laws  as  those 
the  laws  were  destined  to  protect.     Pursuing  the  analogy,  they 
were  thus  afterwards  changed  with  ease,  as  the  growth  and 
necessities  of  the  community  demanded.    Thus  have  we  wisely, 
but  therefore  slowly  and  in  clear  cases,  moulded  most  of  our 
legislation  to  suit  the  rights  of  our  people,  and  the  nature  of 
their  social  condition. 

Led  by  the  sympathies  in  favour  of  our  species,  usually  at- 
tendant on  intelligence  and  virtue  widely  diffused,  the  public 
have  sought  reform  and  improvement  with  such  commendable 
zeal  and  generosity,  that  even  the  lowest  have  not  been  over- 
looked. The  real  pauper,  from  infirmity  of  body  or  mind,  has 
been  not  only  maintained  by  law,  but,  when  capable,  has  been 
furnished  with  useful  instruction,  to  enlarge  his  faculties  and 


43 

elevate  his  soul.  Imprisonment  for  debt  has  also  been  generally 
abolished ;  humane  and  relief  societies  multiplied ;  asylums  and 
hospitals  for  the  insane,  as  well  as  sick,  liberally  established ; 
and  an  eagerness  evinced,  by  means  of  similar  institutions,  to 
pour  intelligence,  if  not  sound,  even  into  the  deaf;  letters,  if 
not  light,  into  the  blind ;  and  language,  if  not  speech,  into  the 
dumb.  The  penal  code  has  been  stripped  of  most  of  its  Draco 
principles — abandoning  sanguinary  floggings,  pillories,  and  tor- 
tures, as  well  as  barbarous  executions,  it  has  become  almost 
universally  one  of  comparative  mildness  as  well  as  of  reforma- 
tion. Beyond  the  spirit  of  the  age  elsewhere,  and  far  outstrip- 
ping its  progress  in  these  respects  in  all  other  countries,  the 
greatest  efforts  have  been  made  to  prevent,  rather  than  severely 
to  punish,  the  largest  class  of  crimes,  and  to  rely  more  on  the 
schoolmaster,  the  spelling-book,  and  the  bible,  for  safety  or  im- 
provement, than  on  the  stocks,  or  the  whipping-post,  or  the 
})rison. 

When  man  has  thus  been  carefully  educated  to  his  political 
position,  and  all  around  him  is  in  just  keeping  with  it,  the  bar- 
riers of  advancement  are  soon  prostrated,  and  he  becomes,  in 
fact  and  in  theory,  the  only  monarch  of  the  soil — the  only  au- 
thor of  his  own  laws — the  sole  arbiter,  in  most  respects,  of  his 
own  destiny.  Then  it  is,  that  he  possesses  every  motive,  human 
and  divine,  to  act,  not  with  rashness,  precipitancy,  folly,  or 
wickedness.  The  ballot-box  is  then  the  sovereign  remedy  for 
most  political  evils,  instead  of  mobs,  or  riots,  or  revolution. 
The  conflicts  of  opinion  and  interest  are  there,  for  a  time, 
adjusted;  injustice,  extravagances,  and  excesses,  defeated  or 
chastened ;  and  the  differences  of  tastes  or  desires — the  inevita- 
ble strifes  of  liberty  and  independence — are,  for  an  allotted  sea- 
son, either  softened  or  compromised,  so  far  as  regards  their 
political  operation,  by  the  conclusive,  though  often  mixed  de- 
cision of  the  majority.  Defeat,  as  well  as  occasional  victory, 
come  so  often  and  unexpectedly,  that  the  whole  habit  of  the 
country  is  to  bear  both  with  moderation,  if  not  philosophic 
resignation,  and  to  rely  on  another  trial  at  the  polls,  in  due  time 
for  the  correction  of  any  former  errors,  rather  than  on  a  resort 


44 

to  force.  If  the  decisions  there  in  regard  to  men  and  measures, 
produced  by  intrigue  or  temporary  excitement,  look  sometimes 
like  caprice,  and  prove  to  be  real  injuries  to  the  voters  them- 
selves, as  well  as  to  others,  they  are  usually  soon  reversed,  on 
fuller  information.  For,  as  Lord  Mansfield,  (no  strong  finend  of 
popular  rights)  once  conceded,  "  the  people  are  almost  always 
in  the  right.  The  great  may  sometimes  be  in  the  wrong,  but 
the  great  body  of  the  people  are  always  in  the  right."  Revolu- 
tion or  rebellion,  which,  in  extreme  cases,  ever  will  and  must  be 
exercised  by  those  suffering  under  flagrant  oppression,  hopeless 
and  irremediable  in  any  other  mode,  is  the  extreme  medicine,  to 
be  applied  only  in  those  extreme  cases,  and  is  not  to  become 
with  impunity  daily  food.  Indeed,  when  the  supposed  sufferer 
helps  both  to  make  and  administer  the  laws,  and  if  dissatisfied 
with  the  decisions  of  the  majority,  can  generally  withdraw,  if, 
after  repeated  peaceable  trials,  unable  to  change  them,  there  is 
little  apology  for  an  appeal  to  any  demoralizing  and  disorganiz- 
ing measures.  Having  a  country  and  a  government  of  his  own 
to  be  saved,  he  is  generally  ready  to  sink  or  swim  with  their 
political  destinies.  But,  if  irregularities  occur,  under  the  deep 
impulses  of  an  over-sensitive  love  of  liberty,  or  a  sudden  delu- 
sion as  to  facts  and  principles,  the  true  policy  of  our  system  is, 
and  always  has  been,  to  indulge  in  leniency,  if  not  forgiveness, 
and  to  seek  future  reformation  by  additional  teaching  in  both 
letters  and  morals,  rather  than  by  inexorable  severity.  A  rea- 
soning, enlightened,  and  moral  population,  are  to  be  managed 
rather  by  reason  than  force,  and,  under  all  disappointments  and 
disasters,  possess  an  inherent  recuperative  energy  that  prevents 
either  despair  or  ruin.  In  such  a  population  there  is  a  vis 
medicatrix  which  will  sustain  the  state  against  very  violent 
shocks,  and  restore  its  institutions  to  a  condition  of  safety  or 
stability,  after  subtle  encroachments  or  great  indiscretion  in 
departures  from  sound  principles.  Constitutions  as  well  as  laws, 
after  deliberately  established,  are  not  thus  in  practice  fickle  as 
the  breeze.  But  the  disposition  is  wisely  cherished,  and  very 
prevalent  in  our  annals,  to  alter  only  what  is  manifesdy  wrong, 
and  with  great  pertinacity  to  abide  by  whatever  is  found,  after 


45       : 

due  experiment,  not  in  a  great  degree  prejudicial  to  the  common 
weal  or  to  individual  liberty  and  enterprise.  While  properly 
making  all  things  in  theory  liable  to  change,  as  greater  expe- 
rience and  information  might  require,  our  ancestors,  since  the 
Revolution,  have  dealt  with  caution  and  delicacy  in  legislation 
for  the  transactions  of  real  hfe,  and  seldom  entered  into  too 
minute  and  vexatious  details,  or  countenanced  very  sudden  inno- 
vations. They  well  knew  that  "  the  world  had  been  governed 
too  much,"  and  that  it  was  more  secure  and  often  more  advan- 
tageous to  stand  by  tried  laws  and  institutions,  though  in  some 
respects  defective,  than  to  embark  constantly  on  doubtful  schemes 
of  supposed  improvement  in  any  thing  and  every  thing  which 
restlessness,  rashness  or  ambition,  passion  or  ignorance,  might 
feel  disposed  to  hazard.  Hence,  they  bore  various  oppressions 
and  much  rank  injustice,  long  as  they  were  bearable  and  any 
hope  was  left  of  peaceable  redress,  previous  to  their  resort  to 
forcible  resistance ;  and  hence,  the  strongest  reliance  can  always 
be  since  placed  on  the  permanency  of  our  institutions  and  laws, 
so  long  as  they  confer  in  any  reasonable  degree  the  benefits 
anticipated  from  them.  Their  maxims  and  practice  have  always 
been  to  advance,  but  to  advance  cautiously,  fesiina  lente. 

It  is  true  our  people  have  generally  sought  liberty  in  all  things, 
so  far  as  consistent  with  the  preservation  of  the  social  system  in 
safe  operation ;  and  that  they  have  trusted  for  protection  much 
more  to  the  better  restraints  of  good  education  and  sound  morals, 
than  to  frequent  changes  or- great  severity  in  their  laws.  It  is 
also  true  that,  in  doubtful  exigencies,  their  general  bearing  has 
always  been  in  favor  of  increasing  liberty ;  but  still  it  has  not 
been  liberty  independent  of  law,  or  opposed  to  it,  but  liberty  in 
conformity  to  law.  They  have  sought  the  law  of  liberty,  rather 
than  the  liberty  to  dispense  with  the  law. 

The  freedom  of  the  press,  for  instance,  however  perverted  at 
times,  or  occasionally  lowered  in  its  legitimate  influence  by 
groundless  and  indiscriminate  animadversions,  was,  at  an  early 
day,  fully  established  here,  unchecked  except  by  being  made 
legally  subject  to  punishment  for  flagrant  wrongs. 

Froin  Milton's  "  speech  for  the  liberty  of  unlicensed  printing," 


46 

puMished  about  the  lime  many  of  our  fathers  emigrated  hither, 
lo  the  expiration  of  tJie  celebrated  sedition  law,  as  well  as  since, 
the  idea  has  "  grown  with  our  growth,"  that  a  still  more  effec- 
tive remedy  to  prevent  tlie  licentiousness  of  the  press,  or  the 
tongue  through  the  press,  is  rather  to  be  found  in  public  intelli- 
gence and  sound  morals,  than  in  the  prison,  or  the  pillory,  or  in 
personal  violence  inflicted  thoughtlessly  on  its  indiscreet  con- 
ductors. However,  then,  we  may  lament  its  occasional  prostitu- 
tion, mingled,  it  is  admitted,  with  many  excellencies,  and  how- 
ever we  may  regret  the  manifold  abuses  of  free  discussion  and 
liberty  of  speech  as  well  as  of  the  press,  yet  they  all  rest  on 
imperishable  principles.  Experience  shows  that  real  merit  lives 
down  most  calunmies,  and  that  time  so  far  destroys  or  corrects 
the  evils,  whether  of  the  press  or  the  tongue,  that  of  all  the 
dunces  who  assailed  the  Popes,  Chathams,  or  Burkes,  of  former 
days,  their  slanders  and  themselves  have  mostly  sunk  into  one 
common  oblivion,  except  as  preserved  by  the  unnecessary  notice 
of  those  they  vilified. 

True  liberty  here  in  any  thing,  never  can  be  the  mere  Gothic 
license  of  irregularity  or  violence.     The  numerous  examples  of 
history,  as  well  as  ordinary  intelligence  and  plain  common  sense, 
teach  us  that  such  a  liberty   is   more  full  of  disasters,  more 
ruinous  to  the  cause  of  uniformity  in  rights,  security  of  person 
or  property,  orderly  happiness,  and  prosperous  greatness,  than  a 
tyranny  the  most  miserable,  partial,  and  bloody.     Such  a  liberty 
lays  the  axe  at  the  root  of  society  itself,  and  renders  every  thing 
a  prey  to   the  inequality    and   injustice  of  mere  brute   force, 
ignorant  passion,  or  unbridled  wickedness.     If  any  thing  called 
law  then  remains,  "  lust  will  become  a  law,  and  envy  will  become 
a  law,  and  covetousness  and  ambition  will  become  laws."     But 
the  liberty  sanctioned  by  our  fathers,  and  pervading  all  our  insti- 
tutions, is  the  liberty  created  and  sustained  not  only  by  law,  but 
that  kind  of  law  which,  with  calmness  and  sound  deliberation,  is 
previously  promulgated  by  an  enlightened  public  will,  to  be  the 
true  rule  of  right ;    and  of  the  pure  spirit  of  which,  in  the 
eloquent  description  of  Hooker,  "  no  less  can  be  acknowledged 
than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice  the  harmony 


47 

of  the  world."  It  is  the  liberty  not  to  trample  on  the  rights  of 
the  weak  and  the  poor,  any  more  than  to  assail  and  undermine 
those  of  the  strong  or  the  rich  ;  but  the  liberty,  even  fastidious 
or  scrupulous,  to  enjoy  those  rights,  as  fully  by  the  one  class  as 
the  other,  both  under  the  shield  of  legal  protection,  but  neitlier 
under  monopolies,  and  both  equally  invulnerable  under  the  broad 
panoply  of  sacred  constitutions,  wholesome  statutes,  and  upright 
as  well  as  intelligent  judicial  tribunals.  Nor  is  liberty  considered 
here,  as  it  often  is  abroad,  to  consist  properly  in  opposition  to 
the  existing  government — a  government  in  most  countries  im- 
posed on  the  people  at  large  no  less  than  on  the  wretched,  by 
conquest,  doubtful  inheritance,  or  force  and  usurpation — but  it  is 
evinced  rather  by  a  support  of  the  useful  operations  of  that 
government  here,  which  all  have  virtually  united  in  devising  and 
profiting  by.  As  little  is  liberty  displayed  here  by  a  bitter  dis- 
like to  the  laws,  on  the  ground  that  "  the  world  is  not  one's 
friend,  nor  the  world's  law,"  because  the  law  here  is  usually  the 
friend,  the  child,  the  ally  of  all,  as  all  who  are  qualified,  help  to 
make  the  law,  all  repose  under  its  shelter,  and  most  people  duly 
appreciate  the  benefit  of  enforcing  it.  Hence,  as  a  general 
truth,  every  eye  here  is  vigilant,  and  every  hand  armed  to  detect 
and  punish  ordinary  offences,  as  well  as  to  expose  official  misde- 
meanors ;  and  the  pride,  ambition,  interest,  and  duty  of  the 
whole  community,  are  arrayed  on  the  side  of  order,  and  in  sup- 
port of  their  own  constitutions  and  laws.  Nor  ought  they  ever 
to  grant  the  liberty  to  oppress  any  one  class,  party,  or  sect,  but 
the  liberty  to  all  of  them,  of  enjoying  freedom  of  speech  and 
discussion  within  the  limits  before  mentioned,  and  of  obtaining 
immunity  from  oppression,  and  redress  for  injury,  through  the 
established  legal  channels.  Not,  in  their  private  capacity,  to  be 
their  own  avengers,  and  redress  wrongs,  either  of  person  or  pro- 
perty, punish  crimes,  make  and  unmake  laws,  constitutions,  or 
appointments  to  office ;  but  to  do  them  all  in  the  respective 
methods,  regular,  public,  and  constitutional,  which  equality, 
justice,  sound  knowledge,  sound  morals,  and  all  the  lessons  and 
admonitions  of  history  point  out  as  salutary  and  safe :  that  is, 
through  the  jury ;  on  the  magistrate's  bench  ;  in  authorized  con- 


48 

veiitious  ;  legislative  assemblies  ;  at  the  ballot-box,  or  the  pollsy 
and  in  proper  executive  stations. 

Liberty  thus  regulated  and  enforced,  becomes  the  champion 
rather  than  antagonist  of  law,  and  the  strongest  bulwark  of 
social  order.  Fortunate  people!  Happy  country,  if  all  the 
teachings  of  its  history,  in  these  respects,  are  not  lost  upon  us 
and  our  posterity. 

While  the  blind  instincts  of  an  uneducated  or  a  vicious  popu- 
lation often  hurry  them  into  sedition,  refractory  insubordination, 
and  every  species  of  lawless  violence,  the  informed  mind,  and 
strong  moral  sense  of  the  great  mass  among  us,  make  them  con- 
scious that,  however  sophistry  may  elsewhere  disguise  the  great 
truth,  or  false  systems  of  policy  may  delude  or  degrade  the  lower 
classes,  and  then  subject  them  to  endure,  tamely,  humiliation 
from  their  fellow-mortals,  or  inflame  them  into  madness  and 
forcible  vengeance  against  oppression,  the  just  rule  of  conduct 
is  always  the  same  in  public  as  in  private  afiairs,  and  that  in  the 
end  it  is  as  ruinous  to  one  as  the  other  to  have  the  right  known 
and  yet  the  wrong  pursued.  They  are  aware  that  if  the  popu- 
lation are  habituated  to  think  and  act,  even  in  politics  alone,  as 
mere  Cossacks,  serving,  whether  individuals,  corporations,  or 
parties,  solely  because  the  pay  is  highest,  and  the  labor  and 
danger,  are  supposed  to  be  least;  and  if  such  mercenaries 
ever  inquire  into  what  is  right,  and  knowledge  in  them,  as  in 
other  cases,  becomes  power,  still,  without  sound  morals  as  its 
director  and  restraint,  it  becomes  but  the  power  of  the  blinded 
Cyclops,  in  his  cave,  useless  to  himself  and  harmless  to  his 
enemies.  Or,  if  like  Sampson's,  destructive  to  his  enemies,  it 
is  at  the  same  time  equally  destructive  to  its  possessor,  crushing 
himself,  ere  long,  with  them,  under  the  ruins  of  the  overturned 
pillars  of  the  social  edifice. 

We  have  not  leisure  to  travel  through  the  more  modern  revo- 
lutions, in  the  American  annals,  and  to  gather  the  numerous 
illustrations  on  this  subject,  written  on  the  fair  fields  of  South 
America,  or  Mexico,  in  blood  and  tears.  Indeed,  the  first  disco- 
verers of  the  new  world  seem  to  have  been,  in  many  respects, 
the  very  least  of  its  regenerators ;  and  it  is  most  lamentable  in 


49 

their  history,  that  they  have  received  ahnost  as  httle  benefits  in 
return  at  home,  as  they  were  unfortunate  in  conferring  abroad. 

In  conclusion,  therefore  w^hile  meditating  upon  our  own  aston- 
ishing progress,  as  developed  in  history,  and  discriminating  with 
care  the  origin  alike  of  our  perils  and  securities  as  a  people, 
does  it  not  behove  us  to  weigh  well  the  importance  of  our 
present  position  ?  Not  our  position  merely  with  regard  to  foreign 
Powers.  From  them  we  have,  by  an  early  start  and  rapid  pro- 
gress in  the  cause  of  equal  rights,  long  ceased  to  fear  much 
injury  or  to  hope  for  very  essential  aid,  in  our  further  efforts  for 
the  thorough  improvement  of  the  condition  of  society  in  all  tLat 
is  useful  or  commendable.  Nor  our  position,  however  the  true 
causes  may  be  distorted  or  denied — our  elevated  position,  in 
prosperity  and  honorable  estimation,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
But  it  is  our  position,  so  highly  responsible,  as  the  only  country 
where  the  growth  of  self-government  seems  fully  to  have  ripened 
and  to  have  become  a  model  or  example  to  other  nations  ;  or,  as 
the  case  may  prove,  their  scoff  and  scorn. 

To  falter  here,  and  now,  would,  therefore,  probably  be  to 
cause  the  experiment  of  such  a  government  to  fail  forever.  It 
is  not  sufficient,  in  this  position,  to  loathe  servitude,  or  to  love 
liberty  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  Plutarch's  heroes.  But  we 
must  be  warned  by  our  history  how  to  maintain  liberty — how  to 
grasp  the  substance  rather  than  the  shadow — to  disregard  rheto- 
rical flourishes,  unless  accompanied  by  deeds — not  to  be  cajoled 
by  holiday  finery,  or  pledges  enough  to  carpet  the  polls,  where 
integrity  and  burning  zeal  do  not  exist  to  redeem  them — nor  to 
permit  ill-vaulting  ambition  to  volunteer  and  vaunt  its  profes- 
sions of  ability  as  well  as  wiUingness  to  serve  the  people  against 
their  own  government — any  more  than  demagogues,  in  a  rougher 
mood,  with  a  view  to  rob  you,  sacrilegiously,  of  those  principles, 
or  undermine,  with  insidious  pretensions,  those  equal  institutions 
which  your  fathers  bled  to  secure.  Nor  does  true  reform,  how- 
ever frequent  in  this  position,  and  under  those  institutions, 
scarcely  ever  consist  in  violence,  or  what  usually  amounts  to 
revolution,  the  sacred  right  of  which,  by  force  or  rebellion,  in 
extreme  cases  of  oppression,  being  seldom  necessary  to  be  exer- 
7      , 


50 

cised  here,  because  reform  is  one  of  the  original  elements  of 
those  institutions,  and  one  of  their  great,  peaceable,  and  pre- 
scribed objects.  However  the  timid,  then,  may  fear,  or  the 
wealthy  denounce  its  progress,  it  is  the  principal  safety-valve  of 
our  system,  rather  than  an  explosion  to  endanger  or  destroy  it. 
We  should  also  weigh  well  our  delicate  position  as  the  sole 
country  whither  the  discontented  in  all  others  resort  freely,  and 
while  conforming  to  the  laws,  abide  securely ;  and  whither  the 
tide  of  emigration,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  seems  each  year 
setting  with  increased  force. 

When  we  reflect  on  these  circumstances,  with  several  others, 
which  leisure  does  not  permit  me  to  enumerate ;  and  when  we 
advert  to  some  of  the  occurrences  in  our  social  and  political 
condition,  within  the  few  last  years,  appearing  worse,  it  is  feared, 
than  the  slight  irregularities  and  outbreaks  of  great  freedom,  on 
such  periodical  excitements  as  elections ;  and  looking  rather,  in 
some  cases,  like  more  grave  departures  from  legal  subordination, 
and  attended,  as  they  have  been,  on  different  occasions,  and  in 
different  quarters,  by  no  feeble  indications  of  obliquity  of  princi- 
ple, in  morals  as  well  as  politics,  evinced  by  violent  aggressions, 
not  only  on  person  and  property,  but  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
of  free  discussion— while  we  see  all  this,  what  does  our  delicate 
and  peculiar  position  teach,  as  to  the  perils  of  American  liberty? 
What  warning  spirit  breathes  from  those  events  ?  What  infer- 
ences should  philosophy  and  sober  judgment  draw  from  their 
history  ? 

Is  it  not  manifest  that  the  danger  now  to  be  guarded  against  is 
one  arising  rather  from  too  little  than  too  much  control  on  the 
part  of  the  Government ;  too  little  rather  than  too  much  rever- 
ence for  the  constitution,  the  supremacy  of  the  laws,  and  the 
sacredness  of  personal  rights  as  well  as  those  of  property ;  and 
if  not  an  undue  homage  to  mere  wealth,  still  too  great  presump- 
tuousness  from  the  enjoyment  of  such  unexampled  prosperity  ? 
Looking  higher  and  deeper,  is  there  not  seen,  also,  too  much 
indifference  beginning  to  be  entertained  in  some  quarters,  with 
regard  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  ? — that  political  marriage 
of  the  States,  upon   which,  like  that  of  our  first  parents,  "  all 


51 

heaven  and  happy  constellations  shed  their  selectest  influence." 
Does  there  not  exist  too  great  an  apathy  respecting  our  impera- 
tive and  lofty  duty  not  to  disappoint,  in  any  way,  the  aspirations 
and  the  confidence  of  the  patriot  or  the  philanthropist,  in  every 
country  directed  towards  us  for  the  conservation  of  all  the  best 
hopes  of  the  human  race  ?    Suspecting,  then,  some  such  evil 
tendencies — feeling  such  doubts,  and  fearing  such  dangers,  what 
do  our  annals  point  out  as  the  true  republican  remedy  to  check 
them  ?    Not,  we  trust,  a  revival — in  substance  any  more  than  in 
form— of  the  stronger  arm  of  monarchical  power  which  preceded 
the  Revolution.     By  no  means.     Not,  in  any  crisis,  rushing  for 
preservation  from  outrage  or  for  rescue  from  anarchy  and  licen- 
tiousness  to   stronger  systems  of  government — to  what,  it  is 
hoped,  we  all  deprecate  and  dread  in  unnecessary  restraints  on 
individual  liberty  and  more  arbitrary  establishments,  under  the 
pretence  of  aids,  though  in  reality  often  the  most  dangerous 
weapons  wielded  by  the  arm  of  civil  power.     Never,  never. 
Nor  yet  a  change  in  our  codes  of  law,  harshly  increasing  their 
severity,  conferring  unequal  privileges,  or  perpetuating  exclusive 
powers,  at  the  expense  of  the  birthright  and  liberties  of  others. 
Nor  an  elevation  of  property  and  its  possessors  to  greater  domi- 
nion over  the  rights  of  persons,  when  its  strides  have  already  been 
so  coUossal,  and  its  influence  so  overwhelming. 

Neither  ought  we  to  indulge  in  despondency,  however  appre- 
hensive, with  the  great  blind  bard  of  modern  times,  that,  in  some 
respects,  we  "  have  fallen  on  evil  days  and  evil  tongues ;"  and 
however  conscious  that,  as  a  people,  we  are  not  entirely  free 
from  foibles,  errors,  and  crime,  in  this  erring  world,  and  have  not 
been  able  to  reach  every  excellence  as  a  nation,  or  to  mature 
every  political  security  of  which  our  constitutions  are  suscepti 
ble,  in  the  brief  period  of  about  half  a  century. 

On  the  contrary,  it  behoves  us  to  look  our  perils  and  difficul- 
ties, such  as  they  are,  in  the  face.  Then,  with  the  exercise  of 
candor,  calmness,  and  fortitude,  being  able  to  comprehend  fully 
their  character  and  extent,  let  us  profit  by  the  teachings  of 
almost  every  page  in  our  annals,  that  any  defects  under  our 
existing  system  have  resulted  more  from  the  manner  of  admin- 


52 

istering  it  than  from  its  substance  or  form.  We  less  heed  new 
laws,  new  institutions,  or  new  powers,  than  we  need,  on  all  occa- 
sions, at  all  times,  and  in  all  places,  the  requisite  intelhgence 
concerning  the  true  spirit  of  our  present  ones ;  the  high  moral 
courage  under  every  hazard,  and  against  every  offender,  to  exe- 
cute with  fidelity  the  authority  already  possessed ;  and  the  manly 
independence  to  abandon  all  supineness,  irresolution,  vacillation, 
and  time-serving  pusillanimity,  and  enforce  our  present  mild 
system  with  that  uniformity  and  steady  vigor  throughout,  which 
alone  can  supply  the  place  of  the  greater  severity  of  less  free 
institutions.  To  encourage  us  in  renewed  efforts  to  accomplish 
every  thing  on  this  subject  which  is  desirable,  our  history  con- 
stantly points  her  finger  to  a  most  efficient  resource  and  indeed 
to  the  only  elixir,  to  secure  a  long  life  to  any  popular  govern- 
ment, in  increased  attention  to  useful  education  and  sound  morals, 
with  the  wise  description  of  equal  measures  and  just  practices 
they  inculcate  on  every  leaf  of  recorded  time.  Before  their 
alliance  the  spirit  of  misrule  will  always  in  time  stand  rebuked, 
and  those  who  worship  at  the  shrine  of  unhallowed  ambition 
must  quail.  Storms  in  the  political  atmosphere  may  occasion- 
ally happen  by  the  encroachments  of  usurpers,  the  corruption  or 
intrigues  of  demagogues,  or  in  the  expiring  agonies  of  faction,  or 
by  the  sudden  fury  of  popular  phrensy  ;  but  with  the  restraints  and 
salutary  influences  of  the  allies  before  described,  these  storms  will 
purify  as  healthfully  as  they  often  do  in  the  physical  world,  and 
cause  the  tree  of  liberty,  instead  of  falling,  to  strike  its  roots 
deeper.  In  this  struggle  the  enlightened  and  moral  possess 
also  a  friend,  auxiliary  and  strong,  in  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
which  is  not  only  with  them,  but  onward,  in  every  thing  to 
ameliorate  or  improve.  When  the  struggle  assumes  the  form  of 
a  contest  with  power  in  all  its  subtlety,  or  with  undermining  and 
corrupting  wealth,  as  it  sometimes  may,  rather  than  with  turbu- 
lence, sedition,  or  open  aggression,  by  the  needy  and  desperate, 
it  will  be  indispensable  to  employ  still  greater  vigilance — to 
cherish  earnestness  of  purpose,  resoluteness  in  conduct — to  apply 
hard  and  constant  blows  to  real  abuses,  rather  than  milk-and- 
water  remedies,  and  encourage  not  only  bold,  free,  and  original 


oi 

thinking,  but  determined  action.  In  such  a  cause  our  fathers 
were  men  whose  hearts  were  not  accustomed  to  fail  them  through 
fear,  however  formidable  the  obstacles.  Some  of  them  were 
companions  of  Cromwell,  and  embued  deeply  with  his  spirit  and 
iron-decision  of  character,  in  whatever  they  deemed  right :  "  If 
Pope,  and  Spaniard,  and  devil,  (said  he,)  all  set  themselves 
against  us,  though  they  should  compass  us  about  as  bees,  as  it  is 
in  the  18th  Psalm,  yet  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  we  will  destroy 
them."  We  are  not,  it  is  trusted,  such  degenerate  descendants 
as  to  prove  recreant,  and  fail  to  defend,  with  gallantry  and  firm- 
ness as  unflinching,  all  which  we  either  derived  from  them,  or 
have  since  added  to  the  rich  inheritance. 

New  means  and  energies  can  yearly  be  brought  to  bear  on 
the  further  enlightening  of  the  public  mind.  Self-interest,  re- 
spectability in  society,  official  rank,  wealth,  superior  enjoyment, 
are  all  held  out  as  the  rewards  of  increased  intelligence  and  good 
conduct.  The  untaught  in  letters,  as  well  as  the  poor  in  estate, 
cannot  long  close  their  eyes  or  their  judgments  to  those  great 
truths  of  daily  occurrence  in  our  history.  They  cannot  but  feel 
that  the  laws,  when  duly  executed,  ensure  these  desirable  ends 
in  a  manner  even  more  striking  to  themselves  and  children, 
drudges  and  serfs  as  they  may  once  have  been,  than  to  the 
learned,  wealthy,  or  great.  They  see  the  humblest  log-cabin 
rendered  as  secure  a  castle  as  the  palace,  and  the  laborer  in  the 
lowest  walks  of  life  as  quickly  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  a  habeas 
corpus  when  imprisoned  without  warrant  of  law,  as  the  highest 
in  power,  and  assured  of  as  full  and  ready  redress  for  personal 
violence,  and  of  indemnity  as  ample  for  injury  to  character  or 
damage  to  property.  Not  a  particle  of  his  estate,  though  but  a 
single  ewe-lamb  in  the  Western  wilderness,  or  the  most  sterile 
acre  on  the  White  mountains,  can  be  taken  away  with  impunity, 
though  by  the  most  powerful,  without  the  voluntary  consent  of 
the  indigent  owner,  nor  even  be  set  apart  for  public  purposes, 
without  the  same  necessities  and  the  same  just  compensation 
awarded  as  in  case  of  the  greatest. 

To  any  man  thus  situated,  any  thing  agrarian  about  property 
would  be  as  ruinous,  looking  to  the  prosperity  of  himself  and  to 


54 

his  family  in  future,  as  it  would  be  to  the  wealthy  now.  Politi- 
cal and  civil  rights  being  made  equal,  it  becomes  much  better, 
no  less  for  the  poor  but  well-informed  and  enterprising,  than  for 
the  cause  of  society  and  virtue  at  large,  as  well  as  the  present 
safety  of  the  rich,  that  the  future  acquisitions  of  property,  power, 
and  honor,  should  all  generally  be  rendered  proportionate  to  the 
future  industry,  good  conduct,  and  improved  talents  of  every 
individual. 

Thus  labor  and  capital  here  are  made  to  have  but  one  true 
interest,  and  to  find  that  "  self-love  and  social  are  the  same." 

The  scourges  of  avarice,  in  its  too  great  voracity  for  wealth  or 
capital,  will  alw^ays  be  the  irregular  depredations  on  it  of  labor, 
if  left  badly  paid  or  badly  taught,  and  the  true  blessings  of 
labor  will  be  its  honest  and  timely  acquisitions  of  capital,  if 
made  able  to  learn  and  practise  its  appropriate  duties  as  well  as 
rights.  Then,  though  steadfast  and  zealous  in  resisting  the 
seductions  of  power,  the  timidities  of  sloth,  the  effeminacy  of 
luxury,  and  the  mercenary,  sordid  spirit  of  mere  gain,  the  work- 
ing classes,  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  careful  to  shape  and  crowd 
forward  all  their  claims  in  subjection  to  order,  and  in  the  safe 
channels  of  law  and  well-regulated  liberty. 

It  would  hardly  be  necessary,  before  this  assembly,  to  advance 
any  further  arguments  deduced  from  our  history  in  proof  of  the 
peculiar  importance,  or  indeed  vitality,  of  sound  morals  as  well 
as  sound  education,  in  such  a  government  as  ours,  at  all  times, 
and  more  especially  in  periods  of  increased  peril.  They,  indeed 
always  constitute  a  power  higher  than  the  law  itself,  and  possess 
a  healthy  vigor  much  beyond  the  law.  Nor,  under  our  admira- 
ble system,  does  the  promotion  of  morality  require  any,  as  mere 
citizens,  to  aid  it,  through  political  favor,  to  the  cause  of  any 
particular  creed  of  religion,  however  deep  may  be  our  individual 
convictions  of  its  truth  or  importance  beyond  all  the  world  can 
give  or  the  world  take  away.  Our  public  associations  for  pur- 
poses of  government  now  wisely  relate  to  secular  concerns  alone. 

Surely,  any  of  us  can  be  the  worthy  descendants  of  the 
Puritans  without  being,  after  the  increased  lights  of  two  hun- 
dred more  years,  puritanical,  in  the  indulgence  of  bigotry  or  in 


65 

placing  any  reliance  on  the  dangerous,  and  it  is  hoped  exploded, 
union  of  church  and  state  for  public  security. 

On  the  contrary,  the  progress  of  temperance,  the  improvement 
in  household  comforts,  the  wider  diffusion  of  knowledge  as  well 
as  of  competency  in  property,  and  the  association,  so  intimate 
and  radical,  between  enlarged  intelligence  and  the  growth  of 
moral  worth  and  even  religious  principle,  with  the  advantages  all 
mutually  confer  and  receive,  constitute  our  safest  dependance 
and  exhibit  a  characteristic,  striking  and  highly  creditable  to  our 
whole  country,  as  well  as  in  some  degree  to  the  present  age. 
If,  constantly  reinforced  by  those  exertions  of  the  enlightened, 
the  virtuous,  and  the  talented,  which  they  can  well  spare,  and 
which  duty,  honor,  and  safety  demand,  they  seem  to  encourage 
strong  hopes  that  the  arm  of  the  law  will  not  hereafter  be  so 
often  palsied  by  any  moral  indifference  among  the  people  at 
large,  or  in  any  quarter,  as  to  its  strength  to  guide  as  well  as 
hold  the  helm. 

At  such  a  crisis,  therefore,  and  in  such  a  cause,  yielding  to 
neither  consternation  nor  despair,  may  we  not  all  profit  by  the 
vehement  exhortations  of  Cicero  to  Atticus :  "  If  you  are  asleep, 
awake  ;  if  you  are  standing,  move ;  if  you  are  moving,  run ;  if 
you  are  running,  fly." 

All  these  considerations  warn  us — the  grave-stones  of  almost 
every  former  republic  warn  us — that  a  high  standard  of  moral 
rectitude,  as  well  as  of  intelligence,  is  quite  as  indispensable  to 
communities  in  their  public  doings  as  to  individuals,  if  they  would 
escape  from  either  degeneracy  or  disgrace. 

There  need  be  no  morbid  delicacy  in  employing  on  this  sub- 
ject a  tone  at  once  plain  and  fearless.  Much  of  our  own  history 
unites  in  admonishing  all,  that  those  public  doings  should  be 
characterized,  when  towards  the  members  of  the  same  con- 
federacy, not  by  exasperations  or  taunts,  but  by  mutual  conces- 
sions, in  cases  of  conflicting  claims — by  amicable  compromises 
where  no  tribunal  is  provided  for  equal  arbitration — by  exact 
justice  to  the  smallest  as  well  as  to  the  largest  State ;  and 
through  all  irritations  and  rebuffs,  the  more  bitter  often  because 
partaking  of  the  freedom  of  their  family  oiisin,  by  an  inflexible 


56 

adherence  to  that  spirit  of  conciliation,  and  to  that  cultivation  of 
harmony,  through  mutual  affection  and  mutual  benefits  rather 
than  force,  which,  honorable,  if  not  always  honored,  formed  and 
has  hitherto  sustained  our  happy  Union. 

When  towards  other  nations  they  should  evince  what  Ander- 
son, half  a  century  ago,  considered  "  the  best  temper  of  govern- 
ment, neither  to  do  a  wrong  or  take  it."  By  the  aid  of  such  an 
example  here,  with  our  abhorrence  of  the  spirit  of  conquest, 
and  our  devotion  to  a  mutual  interchange  among  all  nations  of 
only  favors,  rather  than  injuries,  it  is  believed  that  the  art  of 
printing,  so  widely  diffused  as  it  has  been  of  late,  and  the 
greater  facilities  of  communication  between  most  parts  of  the 
known  worid  by  means  of  an  increasing  commerce  and  wider 
employment  of  machinery  and  steam,  are  fast  creating  a  great 
tribunal,  even  on  earth,  for  the  moral  judgment,  and  we  hope, 
improvement  of  all  nations.  Pubhc  opinion  is  in  this  way  year- 
ly becoming  more  pervading  among  every  civilized  people, 
more  enlightened,  and,  therefore,  with  safety  and  advantage, 
more  omnipotent.  May  it  not  be  hoped  that  all  nations  as  well 
as  our  own  are  thus  receiving  some  stronger  impulses  towards  a 
higher  state  of  refinement,  both  intellectual  and  moral  ? 

In  fine,  it  is  believed  that  our  convictions  must  strengthen,  as 
researches  into  history  and  its  true  philosophy  penetrate  wider 
and  deeper ;  that,  should  the  experiment  of  self-government  and 
increased  civil  freedom  fall  in  this  country,  where  the  most 
flattering  prospect  appears  to  exist  of  perfecting  far  as  practica- 
ble the  condition  of  our  species,  and  accompHshing  soonest  the 
probable  though  in  some  degree  mysterious  end  of  their  creation, 
it  requires  not  the  spirit  of  prophecy  to  predict  that  less  hope 
exists  in  favor  of  the  success  of  such  an  experiment  elsewhere, 
and  that  any  nearer  approach  to  the  golden  age  of  equal  liberty, 
and  the  more  universal  diffusion  of  moral  and  religious  as  well 
as  intellectual  and  political  light,  must  be  regarded  as  reserved 
only  for  some  Utopia  of  the  imagination,  or  some  miraculous 
mlllenium  of  Christianity. 


f  f 


59 


NOTES 


[Several  portions  of  the  preceding  Address  were  omitted  in 
the  delivery,  from  fear  of  being  tedious.  A  few  details  were 
originally  flung  into  Notes,  which  are  annexed.] 

A. — Page  7. 

Three  or  four  illustrations  of  our  recent  progress  on  some  of  these  subjects 
may  perhaps  be  usefully  noticed. 

COTTON. 

1. — The  exports  of  raw  cotton,  in  1825,  amounted  to    -  176,500,000  pounds. 
Do  in  1835,        do  -  386,500,000      " 

2. — Raw  cotton  consumed  or  manufactured  in  the  United 

States  in  1825,  amounted  to    ....    50,000,000      " 
Do  in  1835,  amounted  to  100,000,000       " 

3. — Imports  of  cotton  goods  into  United  States,  from  all  countries, 

in  1825,  value        -  $12,509,516 
Do  in  1835,  only         .      15,367,585 

4. — Exports  of  cotton  goods  from  United  States  in  1825,  foreign  3,784,692 
Do                        domestic  so  small  not  designated. 

Do  in  1835,  foreign    .  3,697,837 

Do  domestic  -  2,858,681 

See  more  in  the  Tables  and  Notes  on  Cotton,  submitted  by  me  to  Congress 
at  its  last  session. 

COAL. 

Quantity  of  Coal  imported  into  the  United  States. 

In  1825,  bushels,     722,255;  value  $108,527. 

In  1835,     do.     1,679,119;     do.      143,461. 
The  domestic  product,  though  vastly  increased,  does  not  prevent  the  im- 
ports from  having  nearly  doubled  in  quantity  in  ten  years,  though  the  price 
has  sensibly  fallen. 


60 


LEAD. 

Statement  of  the  quantity  and  value  of  Lead  imported  into  the  United  States 
during  the  years  ending  on  the  30th  September,  1825,  and  on  the  30th  Sep. 
tember,  1835. 

Quantity,  lbs.         Value. 
Year  ending  30th  September,  1825,  -  -        5,867,520       $293,864 

Do.  do.  1835,  -  -         1,006,472  35,663 

The  domestic  product  now  supplies  almost  the  whole  consumption. 

SALT. 

1. — The  salt  manufactured  in  the  United  States  amounted,  in  1830,  to  above 
three  and  a  half  millions  of  bushels ;  two-fifths  of  which  was  made  in  the 
State  of  New- York. 

2. — Salt  made  in  1835,  about  5,000,000  bushels — the  proportion  manufac- 
tured in  New-York  being  about  the  same. 

3. — Quantity  imported  in   1830,   about  5,374,046  bushels ;  in  1835,  about 

5,375,364  bushels. 

The  domestic  product  now  supplies  all  the  increased  consumption  by  our 
additional  population,  and  near  half  of  all  the  consumption  of  the  whole 
Union. 

These  remarks  and  statistical  details  on  the  above  and  other  articles,  with 
numerous  similar  ones,  might  be  largely  extended,  if  space  permitted  and  the 
occasion  were  suitable. 

B.— Page  8. 

The  republication  of  the  Journals  of  the  Old  Congress,  the  printing  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Convention  which  formed  the  Constitution,  and  the  col- 
lection and  publication  of  our  Diplomatic  Correspondence,  have  done  for  this 
branch  of  history  much  service.  They  have  been  followed,  as  illustrative  oS 
a  still  later  period,  by  the  State  Papers  of  Wait,  the  Executive  Senate  Jour- 
nals, and  the  new  Documents,  as  well  as  excellent  arrangement  of  the  old 
ones,  both  Executive  and  Legislative,  in  the  compilation  ordered  by  C  ongress 
a  few  years  since,  under  the  memorial  of,  and  printed  by,  Messrs.  Gales  &. 
Seaton.  Much  is  anticipated  from  the  work,  now  partly  completed  by 
Messrs.  Force  &  Clark,  illustrating  the  Documentary  History  of  the  Ajneri~ 
can  Revolution. 

C— Page  9. 

The  particulars  for  inquiry  would  especially  includie  its  legislation  and 
judiciary,  its  army  and  navy,  commerce,  agriculture,  and  manufactures,  its 
mints,  currency  and  banks,  its  medals  and  coins,  its  hospitals  and  fine  arts, 
its  revenues  and  expenditures,  exports  and  invports,  the  extent  and  character 
of  all  public  property,  elections  and  wars,  roads  and  canals,  temperatures  and 


61 

storms,  the  most  important  vegetables  and  animals,  wild  or  domestic,  and  the 
national  civil  improvements  and  enterprises  of  every  essential  character,  from 
breakwaters,  dry  docks,  and  various  public  buildings,  to  the  manufacture  and 
uniformity  of  weights  and  measures,  and  the  advancing  survey  of  our  exten- 
sive sea-coasts.  More  connected  with  the  diflferent  States,  but  still  within  the 
scope  of  our  researches,  at  the  centre  of  them  all,  would  be  the  character 
and  progress  of  these  several  subjects  among  each  of  them,  adding  the  great 
features  in  their  local  occupations  and  manners,  amusements,  theatres,  and 
fashions,  religion  and  literature,  diseases  and  superstitions,  pauper  systems, 
statistics  of  crime,  marriages,  deaths,  and  population,  police,  and  general 
state  of  the  arts,  education,  and  morals. 

A  portion  of  these  inquiries,  with  other  similar  ones,  and  their  continuance 
yearly,  would  afford  a  most  interesting,  useful,  and  ample  employment  for 
some  public  department  of  Government,  furnished  with  power  and  resources 
to  push  them  widely,  and  with  energy  and  accuracy.  Whether  called  a 
home  department,  a  domestic  one,  or  one  for  the  interior,  would  be  of  less 
importance  than  the  powers  conferred,  and  the  talent  and  industry  exclusive- 
ly devoted  to  it. 

D.— Pago  13. 

A  small  number  of  the  causes  of  failures  in  Indian  civilization  can  be 
accurately  detected  from  our  histories,  and  fully  exposed  for  warning  and 
correction. 

Sometimes  the  love  of  conquest  has  irritated  a  jealous  race,  and  defeated  all 
prospect  of  immediate  improvement.  Sometimes  a  zeal  without  knowledge 
has  too  hastily  required  their  assent  to  principles  of  religion  and  conduct, 
which  only  a  high  degree  of  intelligonce  could  properly  appreciate.  Some- 
times the  cursed  thirst  for  gold  has  wantonly  plunged  them  into  wars.  Some- 
times an  encroaching  spirit  for  more  fertile  valleys  and  prairies  has  goaded 
them  into  border  wars,  or  vindictive  and  bloody  aggressions  and  ruin  !  Some- 
times, in  self-defence,  we  may  have  fomented  their  internal  divisions,  and 
aggravated  their  neighbouring  jealousies,  revenges,  and  hostilities  !  Some- 
times they  have  refused  the  useful  arts,  because  more  laborious  than  the 
chase !  Sometimes  derided  letters,  because  more  enervating  and  unmanly 
than  war  !  Sometimes  our  traders  have  tempted  their  appetites  for  the  poi- 
sonous distillations  of  art,  rather  than  encourage  them  in  agriculture  or  man- 
ufactures !  Sometimes  we  have  acted  without  system  or  principle,  and,  in 
the  festering  feelings  from  savage  obstinacy  and  atrocities,  have  left  almost 
every  thing  to  private  cupidity  or  avarice,  and  afterwards,  by  the  recoil  of  the 
spring,  resorted  to  measures  more  strict  and  uniform  than  their  undisciplined 
condition  rendered  at  first  wise.  The  true  philosophy  of  their  history  seema 
to  be,  that  the  Indians,  if  we  would  do  any  thing  to  improve  them  durably, 
must  be  more  regarded  as  in  a  state  of  pupilage,  being,  in  many  respects,  but 
children  of  a  larger  growth;  as  too  ignorant  for  forming  many  wise  institu- 


62 


tions  of  tlieir  own,  and  hence  properly  subject  to  discreet  restraints  by  us  on 
their  moral  errors  as  well  as  political  power,  through  a  useful  internal  police 
and  government,  prescribed  for  them  in  the  true  spirit  and  kindness  of  guar- 
dians rather  than  of  conquerors.  Wayward  children !  They  are  also  to  be 
gradually  weaned  from  the  wild  habits  of  the  forest  and  thirst  for  war, 
animated  with  new  tastes  and  ambitions,  and  invested  with  the  individual 
rights  of  property,  and  encouraged  to  the  cultivation  and  acquisition  of  the 
soil  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life.  All  this  is  to  be  pursued  with  system  and 
perseverance,  till  the  whole  native  mass  becomes  changed,  and  adequate  to 
the  task  of  entire  and  judicious  self-government. 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  can  they  usefully  be  permitted,  encouraged  and 
confirmed  in  the  equal  and  independent  exercise  of  it. 

We  must  begin  to  erect  the  social  edifice  among  thran  at  the  foundation, 
and  broadly — not  at  the  summit,  or,  like  an  inverted  pyramid,  liable  to  be 
overturned  by  every  breath  of  discontent. 

E.— Page  22. 

Some  of  the  Eastern  States,  beside  special  school  funds,  literary  funds,  and 
large  sums  voluntarily  contributed  yearly  by  individuals  for  private  instruc- 
tion, now  raise,  by  ordinary  taxation,  an  amount  equal  to  near  half  a  dollar 
per  head  on  their  whole  population.  This,  in  the  New  England  States  alone, 
would  amount  to  almost  a  million  of  dollars  annually,  or  if  adopted  in  the 
whole  Union,  to  six  or  seven  millions. 

The  colleges  in  our  country  which  confer  degrees,  without  enumerating 
numerous  academies,  or  any  inferior  schools,  private  or  public,  have  increased 
to  the  large  number  of  near  100,  with  near  7,000  undergraduates.  These  are 
yearly  becoming  better  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  general  education,  and 
most  of  them  less  confined  than  formerly  to  the  mere  special  advancement  in 
any  of  the  learned  professions ;  while  others,  more  exclusively  designed  for  the 
last,  have  multiplied  so  as  to  make  near  40  theological  seminaries,  about  25 
medical  schools,  and  8  or  10  law  schools.  Many  lyceums  and  institutes  of  a 
useful  character  have  been  added,  and  tlie  whole  course  of  instruction,  within 
a  few  years,  has  received  a  much  wider  and  more  practical  range.  Congress 
has  conducted  liberally  in  this  respect,  as  well  as  about  higher  seminaries,  by 
large  grants  of  valuable  lands  to  most  of  the  new  States ;  and  has  also  made 
wise  provision  for  educating  its  young  officers  in  the  army  and  navy.  How 
much  further  it  will  feel  authorized  to  go  on  these  points,  in  the  old  States, 
or  in  aid  of  the  endowments  of  universities,  at  the  Seat  of  Government,  by 
liberal  foreigners  for  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge,  are  questions  not  ap- 
propriate for  discussion  on  the  present  occasion. 


V 


F.— Page  31. 

What  more  ought  still  to  be  expected  from  us,  from  the  spirit  of  ad  venture 
to  distant  regions,  resulting  from  equal  rights,  liberal  enterprise,  and  j  usl  rela- 


63 

tions,  more  firmly  established  and  more  fostered  and  aided  by  Government  ? 
How  much  more  when  our  citizens,  individually,  or  by  private  associations, 
under  the  guide  of  their  persevering  intelligence,  have  already  spread  their 
explorations  for  so  many  objects  of  novelty  and  curiosity,  as  well  as  profit, 
over  so  many  regions  of  the  globe,  however  remote,  barbarous,  or  dangerous  ? 
When,  beside  their  whaling  from  the  icebergs  of  the  north  to  the  equator,  in 
every  sea,  they  have  sought  out  the  seal  on  many  a  coral  reef;  discovered  and 
cut  sandal  wood  for  China  upon  one  island ;  cured  for  her  biche  le  mer  on 
another ;  imported  pearl-shells  from  others,  for  ornamental  and  useful  manu- 
factures ;  gathered  pepper  on  the  coast  of  Sumatra ;  collected  wool  in  the 
wilds  of  New-HoUand,  and  furs  on  the  northwest  coast ;  penetrated  the  for- 
ests of  eastern  Africa  for  India-rubber,  to  meet  the  demands  for  its  vastly 
increasing  use  here  in  many  of  the  most  important  purposes  of  manufacture 
and  social  comfort ;  established  commercial  relations  with  a  Sultan  in  the 
Gulf  of  Arabia  and  the  Red  Sea,  whose  navies  are  larger  and  dominions 
wider  than  those  of  Solomon  in  his  most  palmy  days ;  enabled  us  to  form 
useful  treaties  with  Kings  in  the  farthest  East,  and  to  bring  home  countless 
other  articles  from  Asia,  Europe,  and  Africa,  calculated  to  solace,  enrich  or 
improve  the  human  family. 


■I  > 


I: 


